Blood Ties
by Kat Morning
Summary: Humans exist alongside another world. A reality populated by shadows; ruled by vampires and youkai. Kagome is a mortal with an "imaginary" friend. A friend that watches over her from the shadows as its most despised creation: the hanyou Inuyasha.
1. The Red String of Fate

Welcome to the repost!

Before anyone panics (not that I think anyone will ...), I removed the chapters, _not_ the story. In the interest of keeping this fic up on this website, all the times I answered questions posed in reviews need to be removed from the story. While I'm at it, I took the opportunity to clean house a little as well. The story is the same, but between the time I began the fic and now I have found out a lot more about the world it's set in. The repost is mainly so I can refine the narrative a bit and add in the proper terms for things where needed. Some parts are heavily rewritten, most aren't. I'll probably do it again when they decide to ban Author's Notes. Anyway, expect a chapter to be reposted/posted every two days or so.

If you ask a question in a review, I'll answer you, if I can, via the reply button. I really appreciate my reviews, so thank you everyone!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and related belong to various people/companies that are not me. Any original characters or ideas, however, are mine.

Rating: T-13, according to the Sphere ratings for standard Inuyasha violence, blood, some language and maybe other stuff. Take the rating seriously, and if you're under 13, this story might not be for you.

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**Chapter 1**

_"Everything you can imagine is real."_  
Pablo Picasso

The Geas-Bound stood in the entryway, the dark leather of her cloak glistening slick with dark blood. Even the string of the longbow she held in her hands was flecked with crimson gore. Onigumo's nose wrinkled as the dank, metallic scent of spilt blood sharpened the air, and he felt his canines lengthen in reflex. Had it been fresh, the blood liberally coating her clothes would have made her alluring, but the dark trail marking the girl's path of destruction smelled old: the putrefying blood of the undead, rather than the fresh blood of the living.

The woman's grey eyes watched him for only a moment before snapping her bow up and loosing an arrow. Onigumo stepped aside, reaching out to capture the flying bit of wood and steel, and caught the second arrow he had not seen her fire in his side.

His dead eyes widened in shock as acidic pain burned through him, more tormenting and strengthening faster than purified metal and ash should. He hissed, a feral sound half animalistic snarl, and reached up, wrenching the bolt from his flesh. A bone arrow - its broken head stained in the sluggish black-red of his blood and the brighter red of hers - lay in his hand.

The soft shuff of leather soles over stone and the whispering ring of a blade being drawn sounded unnaturally loud in the pain-filled silence as the Geas-Bound huntress left the entryway and ventured closer. Onigumo's limbs were stiffening as the dark magic animating them burned away, and he fell to his knees as she approached, her presence strengthening the purifying effect of her blood.

"Vampire." Onigumo bristled at the blatant insult. He was a Nosferatu Lord, not some thin-blooded vampire! As far beyond a vampire as they were above pathetic humans. The young woman took no notice, allowing her bow and quiver to slide to the ground, freeing her movements to raise the blessed Damascus steel of a delicately curved sword. "Vampire, the hanyou you created when you drained the blood and essence of the Western Lord's human mate lives, but it will follow you into Hell by morning."

Onigumo's eyes flashed red at her accusations, even as he could feel his stolen life ebbing, draining the strength and speed that had sustained him for his many long millennia. "I killed the youkai's human bitch," he snarled, curling in tightly on himself as he could feel his skin shriveling, assuming its true age. "She died human."

"And she was Geas-Bound," the huntress told him coldly, "carrying a half-demon child."

"_Nosferatu hanyou_." Onigumo rasped, feeling another sort of cold dread slither through him, alien from the terror of feeling his immortality fading from his body. Had the Geas-Bound before him not found him, his own master would have, and made his ultimate passing far more painful than the agony he now felt streaming through his veins.

"The abomination preserves its mother," she said, "And she may yet survive the birth."

He laughed then, a bitter mirthless sound. "And then you, or one of your kind, will destroy both." Any further words were drowned in a wordless shriek of pain, begging for release. The blade of the huntress flashed and another dark spray of dying blood washed over her hands. She watched without emotion as the stolen life swiftly faded from Onigumo's undead eyes.

"We will first allow Lady Izayoi will destroy her own abominations."

Blunt white ears surrounded by downy fur peeked out of the tiny bundle. A newborn monster, Kikyou sneered, leaning over the baby's nest and nocking a steel-tipped arrow to her bow. The arrow was coated in thin layer of her own blood, blood that could annihilate anything from a vampire to a Nosferatu Lord. Even if the infant was only half vampire, the steel arrow would be more than adequate.

A pale hand lanced out of the shadows, snapping the bow, arrow, and string before raking the splintered wood across her chest and jerking the weapon out of her grasp. Kikyou pressed her spare hand tightly against her wounds as a wave of pain clawed through her body. After a silent curse at the blood coating her palm and fingers, she whirled to face her attacker.

The youkai stood silhouetted like some ethereal god, his white hair almost glowing in the moonlight. Intelligence, but no emotion glittered in his golden eyes. Kikyou clutched at the deep wound across her chest, the cloth and skin now slippery with blood, and saw her death reflected in them.

"This Sesshoumaru will never allow a weak creature like you to spill the blood of our clan."

Kikyou's eyes narrowed dangerously and she began carefully shifting her hand toward one of her hidden blood daggers. True, her blood wouldn't have much effect on a demon lord as it did on the undead, but even the youkai could bleed and a heart wound could kill him. "That," she looked in disgust to the tiny form in the cradle, "is an abomination. Izayoi is wrong to protect it. It must die."

"All things die," the youkai lord shrugged disinterestedly. "Some merely die more slowly than others. The vampires with their vaunted immortality may be killed. Humans die with almost disturbing regularity. My half brother will not die by the hands of a human."

The infant woke at Sesshoumaru's voice and opened sleepy blue-grey eyes. The eyes would lighten with age, probably to the same rich gold as his brother's, but now they were the blue-grey of a newborn. The tiny creature turned his attention to the huntress and watched her with a serious sort of innocence that nibbled at her resolve. Kikyou looked away from the child and back at the youkai lord.

"Then destroy it yourself."

Sesshoumaru watched indifferently and flicked a few drops of blood from his claws as the room filled with venomous green mist. Kikyou, dizzy from the rapid blood loss, gasped as the first tendril snaked its way into her lungs. "If that is his destiny."

Her eyes snapped open and, for a moment, all Kagome could manage was a shallow pant as her mind relived the images and sensations from her dream. Another night's rest interrupted, she grumbled internally as she slowly came back to herself and grimaced as she noticed the stickiness of sweat coating her skin.

Padding barefoot into the bathroom, Kagome stripped out of her night clothes, lobbed them into the hamper, then reached in to turn on the shower. After briefly testing the water temperature with one foot, she stepped into the relaxing water, let it soak her hair and skin and rinse away the worst aftermath of her recurring nightmare. Kagome sighed and leaned forward, enjoying the cool feeling of the tile against her forehead while the hot water cascaded over the rest of her.

After a moment's hesitation, Kagome allowed her eyes to drift close and relaxed her mind, waiting for the familiar comforting presence to wrap itself around her.

She'd discovered this ability and the comforting delusion that went with it over a year ago, right after the death of her father. Still in shock at the time and numb to the situation, she'd allowed herself to be led to couch safely positioned near the open bedroom door of her elderly godmother, Kaede. She hadn't wanted to sleep that night, for fear that the reality of her father's death would set in and torment her dreams. No sleep was preferable, and less exhausting than nightmares, in Kagome's opinion. But, the house was quiet and, after listening to the grandfather clock in the hall tick away the seconds for a while, she'd become bored and begun inventing things for her mind to do.

Purely as a sort of odd game, Kagome had begun pushing her senses around, trying to "feel" everyone else in the house. She had found Kaede, the closest person, almost immediately, partly by the sound of her slow breathing. She'd continued from there to touch her brother, mother and grandfather in their other rooms of the house. She had held that sensation for a moment, a bit giddy at her own silliness in fancying that she could "feel" them all as though they were each attached to her by an invisible string and she alone held the ends.

After only a moment, Kagome had continued her game, this time extending her mind to the neighbors outside of her family's shrine and then further to the rest of her city, then further; gaining confidence and skill as she went. She felt her mental sense expanding faster, racing upwards to the north and west - skipping delicately through all the people she could sense - until, abruptly, something . . . no, someone returned the touch!

Kagome had pulled up short, surprised and more than a little worried that she'd lost her mind and was lying, catatonic, in a hospital somewhere. But she had opened her eyes, seen the comforting sight of a normal ceiling above her and felt the soft scratchiness of Kaede's couch beneath her palms. Deciding that she must either be dreaming or had constructed some sort of weird fantasy for herself, Kagome went back to her odd little game.

After a brief moment of confusion, she had felt an odd thrill of recognition. She'd never known it was possible to recognize someone she had never met and could not possibly put a name to, but there as still the deep, sure sense of familiarity.

He had "spoken" with her - not using words or any spoken language, but through mind and heart. He'd worried at the sadness he'd felt inside her, and offered comfort on more levels than she'd ever realized were there. It had been the single most intimate experience of her life. Finally, the light connection was broken and he had released her mind into an untroubled sleep. Over time, the ability had strengthened and become almost routine. Though Kagome still didn't know who 'he' was or even if he was, in fact, a he, but she hoped that he was. Pathetic as it was, she had a crush on someone she didn't even know was real.

Almost instantly, Kagome felt a response from her formless friend and a wave of emotions: worry that she'd lost yet another night of sleep, comfort at the lingering nausea of the deaths, and, underlying it all, a peculiar thread of nervousness that Kagome couldn't quite understand. Before she had time to ask or analyze the out-of-place feeling, it was gone, tucked carefully away from her mental sight.

Kagome felt a calming response to her tendril of awareness and felt the lingering nausea of the deaths fully ebb.

_'Another nightmare?' _he asked. _'If you don't sleep, you're going to fall asleep in class.'_

_'She looks like me,'_ Kagome sighed, straightening so the water ran over her face and through her sodden hair._ 'I noticed more each time.'_

_'She's not you.'_

_'It could be a premonition or something.'_

_'She's not you!'_ he insisted harshly._ 'She's . . .'_ he cut off abruptly and a peculiar thread of nervousness that Kagome couldn't quite understand slipped through their connection. Before she had time to ask or analyze the out-of-place feeling it was gone, tucked carefully away from her sight.

_'What was . . .'_

_'It's not important right now. You'd better get out of that water before you wrinkle.' _The connection closed before she could respond, leaving Kagome reeling momentarily at the sudden abandonment. Puzzling through the unusual conversation, Kagome reached out and pulled a second rope to shut off the water and returned to her bedroom, wrapped securely in a large towel.

She still had several hours before morning; her friend was right, she needed the sleep. Not bothering to do more than slip into clean pajamas, rub her hair mostly dry, and pull it back out of her way, Kagome slid back into her bed and nestled into the coverings. The fresh tang of the rushes and herbs under the cloth beneath also her enfolded her in an embrace of familiarity.

Not surprisingly, she started nodding off the moment her mind began to settle. Just before she succumbed completely she felt a familiar presence steal back into her mind, staying alert and protective even as she drifted off, and it brought a soft smile to her lips. He didn't apologize for his abrupt departure earlier, he didn't even acknowledge it, actually, and she knew from experience - or perhaps a sixth sense where he was concerned - that he wouldn't bring it up. However, she found she didn't mind. It was enough that he was there, surrounding her with his presence; she would sleep, trusting him to guard her dreams.

_'I wish you could stay with me,'_ Kagome thought sleepily, now more dreaming than awake.

_'Would you accept that if there were a way?'_ he chuckled lightly._ 'You don't even know what I am.'_

_'You're my friend,'_ she said simply and only managed one more thought before sleep claimed her. _'I trust you.'_

A flash of dark red and silver white leapt through the window soon after Kagome fell asleep and crept soundlessly across her moonlit room. Leaning over her still form, he gathered her unresisting self closer and nuzzled gently at the back of her neck before sliding delicate, elongated fangs into her skin. Retracting his fangs to their normal length, he moved away and surveyed his handiwork. A pair of small marks colored her pale skin, small enough to be noticeable only if one knew where to look and what to look for. He smiled in the darkness and leaned down once more to softly nip at her nose.

"Friends for now. Sleep well, Kagome."


	2. Kismet

STORY NOTE: Kitsune are renowned in Japanese myth as tricksters and shape shifters. In case you didn't know that, now you do.

**Chapter 2 - Kismet**

_The bamboo leaves, rustle, rustle,  
shaking away in the eaves.  
The stars go twinkle, twinkle;  
Gold and silver grains of sand._  
Traditional Tanabata song

"... followed by clear skies for this evening's festival! It looks like Orihime-sama and Hikoboshi-sama will finally be able to meet tonight, ne, Hirohoto-san?"

Kagome opened one eye to glare at the evil device lurking across from her bed, blaring at her cheerfully and pulling her out of already-shortened sleep. Stupid dreams. Screwing her eyes shut - and throwing out a hand to smack the snooze button sharply - she burrowed under her pillows and decided to just ignore it for as long as possible.

Her mother, who lived farther from the city in a more secluded area, woke to the trill of doves and the greeting purr of the family cat, Buyo. Kagome got the morning traffic report and her choice of monotone newscasters or caffeine-hyped morning-show hosts. Living in the heart of the city and the lack of a cute animal companion - not that Buyo was exactly cute, but he was a companion - were two of the things that made Kagome almost regret following in her father's footsteps and moving to Tokyo to study law.

Kagome heaved herself out of bed and set to tidying it up enough to start the day, never noticing the few silver hairs left on her pillowcase before the pillow went flying to the end of the bed when she straightened the sheets.

"_Inuyasha!_" a small voice squeaked in impatient exasperation from in front of his desk where a thatch of russet hair bobbed impatiently. Inuyasha glanced up long enough to see a set of tiny claws dig into the surface of his desk and haul the thatch of red hair higher to reveal a pair of bright green eyes. "We are going to miss the festival!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the papers strewn in front of him, and the computer screen. "I'm almost done here, Shippou. We'll leave as soon as I finish."

"But you said ..." Shippou's whine cut off and he dropped from sight as Inuyasha absently reached out and thumped him on the head.

"Stop it, runt. The festival will still be there in an hour, and the sun isn't down yet."

"So? You'll look like an ugly old vampire by the time we _get_ there. You're not even dressed yet!" Shippou protested, his voice drifting from somewhere under the desk this time. "And you _promised._"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes at the kit's impatience. "It's a yukata, Shippou; it won't take that long. I wear them all the damn time when I visit my parents."

"Can't you finish that later?" Shippou pleaded, popping up next to Inuyasha's chair and pointing at the paper cascade. A soft growl and an absent swipe of gleaming claws answered the question. The small demon ducked the half-hearted attack in a well-practiced dodge and sulked for a moment over his intractable guardian before a devious glitter lit up his eyes.

"Inuyasha..."

Inuyasha sighed at the persistent kit, feeling his patience slip away like sand. "What, Shippou?"

"Didn't you want to spend the festival with Kagome?"

"Shippou ..." he almost groaned. Shippou's bright green eyes fairly sparkled with innocence and cuteness. All an act, Inuyasha knew, along with a touch of kitsune magic. "Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you, runt?"

"Well, if she's helping Kaede at the shrine, you can talk to her! And that's better than lurking in her shadow all the time, isn't it?"

Inuyasha dropped a hand over his eyes. The kid was not going to let it go. "Fine, Shippou! I'll finish it later if it shuts you up about it now!"

Shippou grinned and dashed out the door. Inuyasha dropped his papers on the desk and followed, muttering under his breath about hyperactive kitsune and various meanings of the term "deadlines".

Kagome leaned against the smooth wall of the tiny, unused, shrine, barely keeping a grip on her broom with her fingertips. The hem of her red hakama gathered wisps of disturbed dust from the wooden floor and a spider or two scurried for the rafters. If not for the posted signs, and the conspicuous lock on the door, she was sure this place would be as bustling with people as the rest of the shrine complex.

She noticed the color of the sunlight where it slipped through gaps between the wooden boards of the walls and calculated that she had about ten minutes before Kaede sent Miroku looking for her. He had surprised her by showing up that morning and volunteering to help with the festival crowds. Kaede had given him one of her odd, crinkly, knowing smiles, then started ordering the both of them around like a drill sergeant. And, once the public areas of the shrine had been dusted and polished and ruthlessly swept into presentability, Kaede drafted them into assisting with the festival crowds.

Familiar voices approached the ramshackle hide-away, and Kagome pushed away from her wall with a muffled curse. 'Yes, I am around here somewhere,' she silently answered the snippets of conversation she could hear. 'But if you think I plan on letting you corner me, Kouga-kun ...' Kagome slipped soundlessly towards the back of the shrine and a loose board she had discovered when she was nine. Kaede would surely have it fixed, if she'd known about it, but Kagome had always liked having an unexpected escape route from one of her favorite hiding places. Now, her foresight was going to save her from a fate more annoying than a scolding or fire-tending.

It was not that she did not like Kouga, or his pack of friends. It was that she found him a bit overbearing and there was _something_ about him that set her skin tingling almost unpleasantly when he came too close. And Kouga almost always came too close. His view of personal space was positively Latin.

Kagome shifted the weathered board and squeezed sideways to sidle through the small opening. She didn't understand quite how Kouga had found her so quickly in the first place, but her secret 'door' in the back of the abandoned well shrine opened onto a tiny avenue that ran along one of the shrine's tall outer fence. The area was obscure and overgrown: nearly impossible to find from its eventual end at the well-tended court surrounding the shrine's god tree.

She soon arrived at the tree and smiled at the quiet solitude surrounding it. The god tree grew in the far west side of the shrine, set at a distance from the most frequented areas, and virtually alone aside from the abandoned well in its worn shrine, nestled in the north-west corner.

Kagome clambered up to sit amongst the twisting roots on the side facing away from the main shrine pathways. Much as she loved the solid familiar presence of the ancient tree, she promised herself that she would go looking for Miroku soon, and make sure he was not tormenting any of their female visitors too badly.

A sudden flash of color startled Kagome and she stilled, no matter how ineffective that was when she was wearing white and red and looking altogether conspicuous while curled at the base of a giant tree. As she got a better look at her visitor, she relaxed marginally. It was just a young foreigner wandering along the shrine pathways during the festival and playing at dressing Japanese. The camera swinging from a strap around his wrist suggested that he was probably looking for interesting places to take pictures, perhaps with himself in the frame to add 'ethnic color' with his striped hakama and patterned haori. He caught her eye and inclined his head minutely, causing his bleached fringe and a few stray tendrils of dark red hair to fall across his eyes before he walked on.

The moon was rising now, vying for its place in the sky as the setting sun cast its fading warmth and light over everything. Kagome worked her way higher until she could grab hold of the lowest branch of the god tree and pull herself up. She kept one arm looped as far around the trunk as she could reach for stability. Golden light danced in the thick leaves of the tree, and the sounds flowing from the festival were muffled with height and distance.

"You know, that doesn't look very safe," a voice observed from below. Kagome started and had to cling to her branch to keep from toppling out of the tree. A repressed snicker came from the man standing there.

He stood below her, one hand hidden in the long sleeves of his dark gold haori with a small child of about seven slumping with impatient boredom next to his leg, small hands fisting some of the heavy black silk of the elder's hakama. The little boy split his attention between casting looks of curiosity and longing towards the sounds coming from the busier parts of the shrine and prodding looks at his chaperone. A stray, twiggy leaf hanging precariously by one tangle of hair, water stains up his yukata's sleeves and splotching across the front, and an almost hovering hand from his guardian, showed evidence of earlier adventures.

Kagome slid out of the tree and thudded gracelessly to the ground. "Are you lost? I can give you directions back to the festival if you need," she offered politely, wondering if the two were related, and if so, how. The younger one's auburn hair and vivid green eyes looked too exotic to be Japanese, and certainly no match for his older companion's dark coloring.

The man snorted and shook his head to decline her help, "This place isn't _that_ big. And we could always follow the noise back." Even from here, several hundred meters away, the noise and chatter was a dull cacophony of excitement and enjoyment. "We're out here because _someone_ got frustrated trying to catch a goldfish in a paper net and thought using his hands would be better."

Kagome covered a laugh with her hand. That explained the wet yukata. Her laugh was answered with a smile from the man. "I'm Inuyasha," he introduced himself, managing a short bow that seemed oddly unpracticed and caused a stray locks of his dark hair to fall over his eyes. "And this ..." Inuyasha trailed off and looked around in puzzlement before slapping a hand over his eyes. "Would have been Shippou, except that the runt's taken off."

Kagome reached out to grab the trailing edge of Inuyasha's sleeve, pulling him along with a smile as she started back towards the crowds. "He's probably not far. I'll help look for him."

"You don't know Shippou," Inuyasha said flatly. "He's a kitsune."

Kagome grinned at the description. "Sounds like he's a typical little boy. My own little brother's about his age, and he's a handful. 'Kitsune' would fit him perfectly too."

"He's not my little brother," Inuyasha coughed uncomfortably with a shake of his head. Kagome half-turned to look at him with a curious expression and Inuyasha continued with an explanation. "I'm his guardian. He lost his parents a while back and ... well, he's the one that wanted to come tonight and made an unholy pest of himself until I agreed to it."

"Even if you're not related, that still sounds like a little brother to me," Kagome teased lightly as they reached the central court of the shrine and dove into the crowds.

The sun finally set. The final golds and reds, though still warming the undersides of the gathering clouds, were surrendering to the darkening violets and indigos of night. All along the paths of the shrine, lanterns glowed, staving off the darkness and illuminating the chattering crowds.

"I am beginning to believe you about the kitsune comment," Kagome said, slumping against Inuyasha as they continued to scan the crowds. Shippou had eluded them for several hours, even though they had combed the shrine three times looking for him. "I can't believe we haven't found him yet."

"You have the look of someone looking for something, Kagome-chan," an old gravelly voice said, causing the pair to jump. They looked up to find gimlet eyes trained on them. Inuyasha shifted nervously under the scrutiny and edged back like he was trying to disappear.

"Kaede!" Kagome eyes lit up as she smiled and she waved as the aged priestess joined them.

"Hello, Kagome-chan," Kaede returned the smile, causing more wrinkles to appear on her face. Inuyasha slid behind Kagome and eyed the trees around them speculatively. "Inuyasha," Kaede greeted, stilling his retreat. "I did not expect to see you this night."

Inuyasha cursed under his breath and muttered something that featured Shippou as Kagome looked between the two with a touch of confusion in her eyes. "I would introduce you," Kagome finally said, "except it seems you already know each other."

"I know Inuyasha and his family quite well," Kaede said mildly. "I am sure they would be as surprised to see him here tonight as I am."

Inuyasha bristled. "I do go out, you old bat. C'mon, Kagome. Let's keep looking for the runt."

"You won't find him, Inuyasha, though you'll find that Shippou-chan has not been lost for quite some time," Kaede said. "Miroku agreed to entertain and escort the child. You should find them down that way." She pointed an arthritic finger down a path of cobblestones festooned with glowing red and white lanterns. "The child takes all too well to Miroku's scheming, I'm afraid. Go rescue any hapless girls those two swindlers have trapped in their net, Kagome."

Kagome gave a laughing wince and agreed. Inuyasha immediately moved to follow her, only to be halted once more by Kaede latching on to his arm. "I am quite sure my goddaughter can handle your young ward and her brother, Inuyasha. Why don't you remain and entertain an old woman with conversation until they return?"

Kagome cast a dubious stare at her godmother, and a slightly sympathetic glance at Inuyasha (and the resigned look creeping over his face and body language) before nodding and dashing off. Kaede waited until the girl was well and truly out of earshot before turning on Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, what are you _doing_ here?" The old miko fairly hissed at the young man.

"You mean in public, instead of hiding in my house like a good little abomination? Snuck out," Inuyasha admitted. At her pointed and scolding glare, he bristled. "Hey, I'm being careful! Unless you have a nosy telepath on your guest list tonight, we're fine. I'm a full vampire until dawn. Besides," a wicked grin tugged at his lips, "Sesshoumaru's going to be _pissed_ if he finds out about this."

"And likely beat you bloody for the affront," Kaede deadpanned. "It is not your elder brother's reaction that I am concerned about, Inuyasha."

"Then what are you worried about?" Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Look, Shippou wanted to come and damn near drove me crazy begging. I'm not going to draw Tetsusaiga and go on a killing spree. Even the Geas-Bound you have lurking around here aren't going to stake me for eating takoyaki and letting the brat try and catch a goldfish."

Kaede sighed and shook her head ruefully. "You stand out, Inuyasha and that is what worries me. It's not in a vampire's nature to show compassion, and yet you search for a young kitsune with a human at your side."

"Kagome wasn't 'at my side'!" Inuyasha bristled. "She was just kind of tagging along. I can find the kid without her help! And so what if I have a human with me? She isn't bespelled and she's got magic clinging to her from living with a bunch of Geas-Bound. Anyone who could actually notice what I am would just assume she was tonight's dinner and ... entertainment."

Kaede full out glared at the seemingly-young man. "Thankfully, I know you better than to assume that, Inuyasha. However, I do not suggest giving that impression to Miroku."

Inuyasha met her glare with rolled eyes. "Then I will explain – if I see your pet Geas-Bound, and if he asks – that _she_ was just being overly helpful, and could I please have my brat back."

"While pulling a blessed knife or stake from your heart, I'd imagine."

"Keh! As if he's strong or fast enough!" Inuyasha scoffed. "Then Sesshoumaru really would have an excuse to kick my ass."

Kaede sighed and shook her head in fond exasperation. "You'll do what you want and how you want, and, yes, I know you know the risk. Just be careful, child. This old life of mine would be duller without you."

"As careful as I need to be," Inuyasha told her, with a look in his eyes that said he'd been spending too much time around the kitsune honing his sense of mischief. "Trust your elder, baba."

* * *

**Kat's Notes:**

So ... hi. I live? Yes, it is shocking. Why did I think I'd manage to just tweak a few things and post this back up quickly? Probably because chapter one was easily tweaked. Chapter two decided to go the scenic route and, if you remember the first version, this one is totally different. I admit, I like this better, but ...

Anyway, if anyone's still reading this story, thank you. I plan to post something next week. May not be Blood Ties, because I have a Detective Conan fic I want to finish up. It's just about done and it's been a personal challenge to manage this plotline. I'll be resisting all attempts to expand it because down that way lies madness. Yes it does.

Also, I'd invite any Rurouni Kenshin fans to check into the other fic I'm writing with LadyChi. That's really what got me writing again. Just look into my favorite authors and find us!

Now, on to Chapter 3! And something resembling a plot!


	3. Dead Rising

I really wanted to release this one on Halloween, but it wasn't back from beta yet. So, we're late, but at least we're updated, right?

Thank you so much to everyone still reading!

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**Chapter 3 - Dead Rising**

"Lo, I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven,"

_- Isis -_

Half a dozen girls in bright-colored yukata clustered around Miroku. Below him was Shippou, biting his lip in concentration as he carefully swept a paper net into the pool. His yukata sleeve trailed behind like a second net for the bright, fire-scaled fish milling in the water.

It was unfortunate, Miroku thought, that he would have to return the little demon to whatever older hell spawn was supposed to be watching him. There was clearly something about an – admittedly handsome – man helping a small child chase fish around with a paper net that women seemed to find irresistible.

The boy had even caught a fish by this time. Though, Miroku suspected meddling on the part of one of the women watching from around the trough. At least one of them was a witch: he could feel traces of water magic shimmering in the air, and he'd noticed the glowing emblem her fingers had left when she had"idly" brushed the surface of the water, and the flash of crystal in her other hand.

He'd definitely noticed, and quirked one eyebrow at her to let her know he'd noticed. She'd responded with a challenging half-smile before turning her full attention back on Shippou and his pursuit of scaly gold. A scratchy bit of paper found its way into a fold of his haori and Miroku grinned to himself. Definitely a witch.

Not that the presence of a witch was any more of a surprise than the young demon he was watching. This was Kaede's shrine and, this late in the night, more than half the festival-goers weren't strictly human. There were normal mortals here, of course, which was half of why Kaede had insisted Miroku come help her and leave Bankotsu to cover two areas. It worked out well enough for a festival night, since most of the magical folk would be congregating for the celebration instead of wandering the streets.

There were many places in the city that were frequented by the magic-users and non-humans, mostly hidden in plain view or a short trip down two narrow alleys and up a fire escape, owned by those like Kaede – a retired Geas-bound – or by one of the few normal humans that didn't carry any illusions about things that went bump in the night.

"There you both are!" a cheery voice said as a proprietary arm slid around his waist and he felt the ghost-soft touch of someone's lips as she reached up to plant an affectionate kiss on his cheek. "Forget something, Miro-kun?" she asked sweetly. Miroku's eyes widened and he looked down at his sister, who was acting disturbing like a _girlfriend_, in shock.

"Kagome?!"

"I figured you'd find something to entertain yourself with," she said, smiling at the expressions varying between surprise and annoyance appearing on the faces other girls. "But don't you think it's time to put away your toys for tonight?"

Miroku debated with himself, torn between announcing that the girl latched like a barnacle on his arm was his sister, and she was a little crazy, or just tossing Kagome into the fish barrels and hoping the water would snap her out of whatever creepy hallucination she was having. Before he could decide, he was standing alone, with only Shippou, Kagome, and the fish for company.

"Kagome!" Miroku jerked away from her, his expression warring between horror and indignation as she let him go and folded her arms across her chest.

"Don't 'Kagome' me, Miroku. You so deserved it." She smacked his shoulder and turned the full force of her disapproving glare on him. "You're corrupting an innocent little kid!"

"Innocent, ha!" he retorted. "Shippou-kun was completely amicable to our arrangement."

"Miroku promised me candy!" Shippou chimed in, a grin of innocence plastered across his face. Kagome's eyes glittered with danger, but she spared Miroku, for now, in favor of lecturing Shippou.

"Shippou, you shouldn't wander off like that!" Kagome scolded, dropping down to eye level with the boy. "You had us worried!"

Miroku's eyes narrowed at the "us," and he wondered just how Kagome had spent the festival that had her clearly looking for a kitsune child that she even knew by name.

"Pfft! Inuyasha never worries," Shippou declared, turning his attention back to his new pet, which flitted around in its plastic prison.

"Which is why I was chasing your sorry self all across this shrine, runt?" A new voice drawled, preceding the arrival of the voice's owner. Shippou squeaked and turned to find a dark-haired person towering over him, arms folded and an annoyed scowl on his face. The squeak switched to an indignant squawk as Inuyasha reached out to snag the hand not occupied by the fish. "Come on, Shippou, it's definitely past time to go home."

"I'll walk you to the gates," Kagome volunteered, rising back to her feet and falling into step beside Inuyasha.

Shippou glared up at them both, almost dangling from Inuyasha's grip, before he gave a sullen sigh of acquiescence when they ignored him. He tried to cross his arms to show his annoyance, and the plastic bag of water smacked into his chest. The bag popped at the abuse, drenching Shippou and sending the fish flopping across the paving stones. Shippou jerked his hand away from Inuyasha and jumped after his flopping pet with a strangled cry.

"Shippou, you're going to step on it!" Inuyasha swore as he dove after the boy. Shippou evaded Inuyasha hands and chased the flopping, gasping goldfish, who was making impressive progress for a dying fish flailing across the cobblestones.

Inuyasha made a last-ditch lunge for Shippou moments before he pounced on the fish, and snagged a handful of the boy's yukata in his fist, pulling him up short. Shippou twisted, trying to wrestle out of Inuyasha's grip, and succeeded in unbalancing them both and sending them sprawling. Crimson silk appeared in their view, followed by the rest of Kagome as she dropped to one knee, scooped the weak fish up into her hands and carried it back to the water tub that held its fishy companions.

"It took me an hour to catch it!" Shippou wailed, untangling himself from Inuyasha and running over to stare forlornly into the wooden tub.

"And no water witch to help us this time," Miroku sighed under his breath as he noticed that his appreciative audience had abandoned them.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and advanced on the impromptu fish pond, pulling his yukata sleeves away from his hands. Miroku's hand descended on Inuyasha's right shoulder, while Shippou's claws latched onto his left sleeve.

"You're supposed to catch it with the net."

Inuyasha shrugged the hand off his shoulder and dragged Shippou unceremoniously forward. "I won't say anything if you don't, priest."

"I want to catch it myself!" Shippou protested.

Thunder cut off Inuyasha's reply and Shippou switched from whining to clutching at Inuyasha's hakama. Kagome's nose crinkled as a cold drop struck it, followed by a sprinkling volley of drops in her hair and across her shoulders. Beside her, Inuyasha ducked in discomfort and Shippou scurried closer to avoid the increasing wet.

"It's raining!" Miroku looked up, shielding his eyes from the increasing downpour and watching the rain streak past the lantern lights.

"Brilliant observation," Inuyasha snapped, un-hunching enough to look for shelter. He grabbed Kagome by one hand, and Shippou by the other. "This way."

Up ahead and through the rain, they could see the lantern-bedecked form of the shrine's storage room. It was where Kaede kept trinkets and brick-a-brac she had collected from different parts of the world over the years, and the extra supplies of things that needed frequent replacing. Most importantly, at the moment, it was sure to be drier than standing out in the cloudburst and rising wind.

The four dashed inside, pursued by another hackle-raising crash of thunder and a flooding sheet of rain. Kagome turned back to watch, leaning out far enough that the wind tugged at her rain-dampened hair and clothes. Lightning illuminated the room in a brief flash, overwhelming the flickering lanterns Miroku had grabbed during their pell-mell flight for shelter. Shippou clambered up to where another few lamps were hanging, unlit, and lit them with a flicker of fox fire.

Miroku glared a warning, and pointed at Kagome's turned back. Inuyasha responded with a subtle grin and shrugged, his expression clearly saying that Miroku could either let the magic slide or make a fuss and draw his sister's attention. Miroku rolled his eyes and placed his own light on top of a crate. The added illumination bathed the room in a warm glow amidst the garish strobes of lightning.

Kagome drew her haori snugly around her body to stave off a bit more of the encroaching chill. Rain clung to the leaves and grass and dripped methodically down the wood of the building, making the world shimmer wherever the remaining lanterns glowed. Kagome smiled as she reached out to catch the rain in her hands. She enjoyed the crisp, earthy scent of rain that was tinting the air, even if her companions were reacting to it with impatience and nervous fidgeting.

A shadow darted across the edge of her vision, oddly shaped and out of place. Kagome's startled gasp caught Miroku's attention, and he pulled himself away from staring watchfully out a window to look questioningly at her. Kagome shook her head and laughed gently. "I just thought I saw something. Probably just the wind moving a branch."

The grounds looked deserted; everyone having made a mad dash for drier parts by taking shelter in the buildings, or leaving the shrine all together. Still ... _something_ had flickered in the edges of her sight. Inuyasha brushed past her, and leaned out into the torrent, ignoring the water as it flattened his dark hair against his forehead and trailed tear-like rivulets down his face. A frown tugged at his lips, and his hand moved to close around the sheath of the sword at his side. He moved back inside long enough to prop the battered weapon against the wall and looked over his shoulder at Shippou, who was playing with a top he'd produced from somewhere.

"Shippou, stay here with Kagome," Inuyasha ordered. Shippou looked up, startled, and eyes widening as Inuyasha added, "do not leave."

"Is something wrong?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha hesitated for a bare moment before shaking his head. "I want to see if someone got caught out in the storm and got lost. I don't want Shippou to get soaked and catch a cold."

"I'll come with you," Miroku offered, walking forward to join the other man, his hand drifting up to straighten the front of his haori. "If there is someone out there, you might need help."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at the Geas-bound, then shrugged and stepped into the storm. He made no indication that Miroku should follow, but did not stop him either.

Kagome watched them go, feeling a bit confused, but refocused her attention on Shippou as she felt him tug on the trailing end of her haori sleeve. "Hope no one did get caught in that mess, ne?" she asked, and shivered slightly. The temperature was dropping quickly as the earlier warmth of the evening was eclipsed by the night's rain and stolen by the wind. Kagome turned from the door, following Shippou as he started exploring. Maybe, she thought as she joined him in rooting through dusty boxes, they would find a brazier or a heater; something to warm their shelter for when the rain stopped, or the others returned.

The storm wasn't natural. The further into it he moved, the more certain Inuyasha became. The Geas-bound beside him confirmed the unspoken conclusion when a bone dagger had appeared in his hand as soon as the storage room, and Kagome, was out of sight. The dark core of virgin blood running the length of the sickly-white blade glinted with subtle threat to anything undead that stalked through the darkness. Including him, Inuyasha noted with trepidation, and edged away from the promise of a poisoned death.

Inuyasha stretched his hands as he moved, loosening the muscles and testing to see how much his vampire blood had overtaken his demon. Edged points emerged on his nails, but they did not lengthen into proper claws. Normally, they had to be trimmed and filed to look more human when he went out in public; blunt and rounded instead of coming to the deceptively delicate points they naturally formed. Dull claws would be effective only with enough power behind them.

He looked towards the horizon and calculated how long he had before the sun rose and restored his demonic powers. Maybe an hour, since he could _feel_ the promise of dawn rising, even through the clouds. Inuyasha spared a glance for the Geas-bound beside him and made a mental note to disappear before dawn. There was no chance the hunter would fail to notice the aura shift, or the dramatic physical changes, that would come with the sun.

"Any idea what's out here?" Miroku asked, scanning the dark with eyes, ears, and the innate sense of the Geas-bound.

The stench reached Inuyasha first, and he snarled under his breath. The rain diluted the smell, and the wind that tugged at their clothing and hair diluted it further, but the air still carried the taint of souls torn from their mortal husks and left to decay in the slow rot of the partially undead. The aspirate moans began, echoing weirdly between the buildings over the tearing leaves and clacking bamboo. "Ghouls."

"Or zombies," Miroku added, switching the knife to his left hand, and riffling through his clothing. The search produced a longer blade of oiled steel. "We should have sealed Kagome and Shippou in ..." Miroku's eyes narrowed as movement caught his attention. "Inuyasha!" he warned, pointing at something beyond Inuyasha's left shoulder.

Inuyasha dodged, throwing himself forward and out of range of the monster coming at him, then somersaulting to turn the dive into a forward roll back to his feet. The creature crouched where Inuyasha had stood seconds before, gathering itself for another spring. Soulless eyes glowed from beneath matted hair dripping with bloody ichor. No intelligence burned in them, only an animalistic savagery and the carnivorous desire to consume and destroy, to sate the madness of a damned soul trapped in its former temple. Broken fingernails clutched spasmodically at the cobble stones, grasping and wrenching at flesh that was not there.

"Ghoul," they both confirmed, moving towards one another for the safety of numbers. The ghoul lunched at Miroku, who had become the closer target. An ofuda appeared between Miroku's fingers for an instant before he sent it flying at the ghoul, freezing its motor functions long enough for Miroku to step aside and drive the steel knife into the back of the ghoul's neck. A sickening crack as the vertebrae separated and Miroku severed the spinal column with a sharp twist of the knife before pulling it free.

"Was that the only one?"

Inuyasha streaked past him, and Miroku whirled around in time to see him split a second ghoul from throat to navel, shattering bone with a sweep of bared claws. Beyond them, in the fitful darkness, more of the creatures could be heard. A lot more. Inuyasha looked back over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Have a crossbow hidden in your haori, priest?"

"Were I a better shot with one, I might have," Miroku responded, voice tight. "I believe we will be improvising this night, Inuyasha. And I pray it is not a full infestation."

Inuyasha pointed up at the still-roiling storm that howled around them. "Not a normal storm, priest. Something's got a black ritual going. And they're nearby."

"I need to get my sister somewhere safe," Miroku decided, starting back towards the shed where they had left Kagome and Shippou. Inuyasha's hand reached out, the claws noticeably longer and sharper than they had been minutes before. Inuyasha growled in his mind. Ghouls or no ghouls, time for him was running out. He had to be _away_ from this Geas-bound before he noticed anything he shouldn't; like the threads of white that would soon begin streaking his hair.

"I'll take them both to Kaede," Inuyasha offered. _Come on, Stake-slinger, take the bait. You want to get the civilians out of the way so you can go play hero, and I want away from you._ Not that it was a full lie. He would get both Shippou and Kagome to Kaede and collect Tetsusaiga on the way. As long as they stayed in the shed with the sword, nothing undead could pass the walls.

Miroku stared at Inuyasha for a moment, clearly weighing the options and considering Inuysha's offer before accepting it with a nod. They parted, Miroku disappearing in the direction the ghouls had come from, and Inuyasha turning to start back towards Shippou and Kagome.

**Kat Notes:**

Quote from: The Burden of Isis: The Laments of Isis and Nephthys. Just in case I have any Egyptian Mythology buffs out there that wondered where I was digging up a quote attributed to Isis.

We have now entered the realm of totally different from the previous version. I still have a copy of that version floating around, I think. I really do like this one better. And, I get to use a villain I don't see used much next chapter! 

Anyway, hope to see you next chapter. And the next update I make will probably be a new Rurouni Kenshin fic called Sympathy for the Devil. Look for that in the next week if you read Kenshin fic. More supernatural stuff, so it's kind of on the same vein as Blood Ties. After that, I'm hoping to get a new Magic Kaito fic finished up. We'll see if Conan and Kaito want to cooperate so I can finish the last scene up. If not, I'll just concentrate on tormenting Kenshin and Inuyasha.


	4. Soul Harvest

**Warnings:** Blood. Violence. Lots of it.

**Disclaimer:** In chapter 1

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Soul Harvest**

_From ghoulies, and ghosties,_

_and long legged beasties,_

_and things that go bump in the night,_

_Good Lord, deliver us._

.: Scottish-Gaelic Prayer :.

Shippou squawked as he tumbled into the first box, landing amidst a colorful spray of silk streamers and carefully packed Noh masks. He kicked at the air for a moment, scrambling to right himself, before feeling hands around his waist and heard laughter in the air as Kagome hoisted him out. Shippou sneezed and coughed, clearing his nose and lungs of a year's worth of dust, most of it scented like dry grass, as Kagome knelt beside him, and brushed at the fine film coating his clothes and hair.

"Stick to the shorter ones, okay?" Kagome grinned. "I found a few blankets on the other side of the room. Help me carry them, will you? Inuyasha and Miroku will be drenched when they get back, so we'll need them."

Shippou nodded and continued beating at his sleeves to remove the dust that was clinging to the damp fabric, and managing to turn the dust into splotchy mud. Kagome set the lantern on a lower stack of boxes, and stretched above her head to tug at the folded piles with one hand, while keeping the other ready to catch any cascades. The blankets resisted for a few breaths before slithering from their places with a rasp of sliding fabric and a soft whomph when they landed in Kagome arms. She dropped to one knee, allowing Shippou to grab one thick enough he could barely see over the top of it, and they carried the bundle back to the doorway.

Kagome sat next to the doorway, where she could easily see out, and wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders, staving off the chill. Shippou settled next to her, cuddling as close to share her body warmth until she opened one arm, wordlessly inviting him to share the blanket. The wind had ceased howling, and now rushed through the trees in a raspy, slithery sound, like serpent scales on stone.

Kagome hugged the blanket closer on her side, closing up the gaps until only one hand peeked into the open air. The rain seemed to be lessening, and Kagome thought she could hear voices. She rose, letting the blanket drop from her shoulders, and leaning down to tuck it around Shippou. He looked up, confused, and she smiled to reassure him. Leaning out the doorway a bit, she strained to make out words in the odd cadence that rose and fell with ritual regularity. Shippou snatched at her hakama, trying to pull her back inside, and Kagome dropped to one knee beside him. "Can't you hear that?"

Shippou nodded and took a step backwards, further into the dubious protection of their shelter. "And I think we should leave it alone."

Kagome hesitated, looking forward, and out to where the creepy sounds were joined by a rhythmic, scraping, clack. Then she nodded and stood again to move away from the doorway. Air flowed around them through the open door, swirling around their hands and infiltrating their clothes. Kagome shivered and stumbled when her foot caught on something and twisted, throwing her to the floor. Shippou gasped and ran to her. Kagome waved him off and rubbed at her ankle, looking for the splinter that she had landed on when she fell. She could feel the itching prick of it in her skin. She frowned as clean-swept floor met her search, and she couldn't feel anything still in the wound.

An incandescent flash of light silhouetted the wind-tossed trees, followed by a crash of thunder that shook the windows in their panes. Kagome ducked, curling herself around Shippou's shaking form, and clenched her eyes shut. She could feel her hair rising from the discharged electricity and knew the lightning had struck nearby. Shippou quivered in her arms, and Kagome silently begged Inuyasha and Miroku to hurry back. She'd long outgrown fearing the dark, but waiting out the storm and its lightning strikes in the little-used storage shed had her imagination in overdrive, and there was comfort in numbers – numbers she desperately wanted when she finally registered the silence that had descended after the lightning.

The eerie silence echoed with sinister menace; all the more frightening in its lurking absence. Then the rain started again, thudding against the wood roof and walls. Kagome hissed and pulled the hem of her hakama up as the itching pain in her ankle flared into a throbbing burn, as though someone had dug a splintery shard of wood into her leg, and then poured acid in the wound.

She blinked as unmarked skin met her gaze. She could _feel_ the fiery pain pulsing with every beat of her heart, intense enough that dark spots were beginning to dance in front of her eyes. But, it was a phantom wound. No angry red marks marred the surface, despite the fevered heat she could feel invading her limbs. There was nothing there but skin splashed by traces of mud and smudged by her hems.

Dimly, she heard Shippou asking if she was all right, but she had to ignore him in favor of clinging to consciousness. The burning had spread from toes to fingertips, and the edge of her vision was blackening. Something was very wrong, and a dark chill of panic overtook her. Shippou's questions escalated into an upset wail as her breathing constricted – switching from deep, even breaths to shallow pants. Cool wood pressed against her flushed face before her murky mind registered that she was laying on the floor. How had she ended up on the floor? She struggled to lever herself back into a sitting position, but her arms refused to cooperate. Kagome coughed as she sucked a bit of dust into her lungs, and the scent of wood stain curled up into her nose from the boards.

Kagome saw two small feet pad up to her, and Shippou's green eyes appeared a moment later, looking frantic as he reached out to shake her. She managed to reach out to him just before her vision blacked out and she succumbed to the press of oblivion.

------------------

Shippou shook Kagome harder, keening softly in worry as her body relaxed under his hands, and her eyes slid shut. He looked out into the rainy night, hoping to see Inuyasha or Miroku returning through the mist. He didn't know what was wrong with Kagome, but he did know that she was too big for him to move by himself. And, he didn't like the sent of the magic crawling through the night. It reminded him too much of the stagnant blood he'd smelled the night his parents were killed.

Sniffling from the dust, cold, and memories, Shippou set to turning Kagome over on her side. His feet scrabbled against the floor as he shifted her, and she had tiny snags in her clothes from his spell-hidden claws by the time he managed to move her, but she looked more comfortable with her head pillowed on her arm, and her legs tucked to one side. Shippou flopped down next to her and considered the tattered katana leaning inconspicuously beside the door.

He couldn't go for help, because the barrier emanating from the sword kept him _in_ just as surely as it kept any other demon or vampire _out _until Inuyasha returned. The building had windows, but the barrier had leeched into the wood, glass, and metal, so even if he managed to find an opening other than the door, Shippou knew he would still bounce right off with a warning for his trouble first, and magic burns if he was persistent.

Shippou sighed, pushed himself back to his feet, and retrieved a pair of blankets from the pile they'd made. He spread one over Kagome and then tucked himself next to her with his own wrapped around him. It was warmer this way for both of them, and keeping her warm was the best he could offer.

The silence and the warmth lulled Shippou into a drowsy state of boredom, and he had pulled out a small top to spin across the wooden floor to play with when he felt the girl behind him stir. Perking up, Shippou looked over his shoulder and found Kagome's eyes slowly opening. A scrapping clatter alerted him that his toy had foundered and stopped, but Shippou ignored it.

Instead of waking up alert and confused by her collapse, or even rousing in fevered pain, Kagome looked composed and distant, as though she was sleeping with her eyes open. Her pupils dilated, leaving a thin ring of brown nearly eclipsed by pools of black. Her face was relaxed and expressionless, and Shippou could feel a subtle tension thrumming through her muscles as she rose to her feet. The air whispered with latent magic, making his fur stand on end, but this was a different sort from the darkness that still oozed around them.

Shippou yelped as the blanket she'd been covered with buried him and he scrambled to burrow out from under the swath of fabric. Shippou fought his way free of the folds just as Kagome passed the sword guarding the door and disappeared from view.

"Ack! Kagome! Where are you going?!" Shippou squawked, shaking the last clinking bit of fabric off his foot to race after her. The barrier crackled as he crossed the threshold, then sparked and tossed Shippou back several steps, forcing him to windmill his arms to catch his balance. He sprang back towards the door, pulling up short before running into the magical wall again and chancing more than a "stay back" rebuff. He stared out into the storm, trapped in safety and unable to do more than call to her without expecting an answer, or cry for Inuyasha who was still out of earshot.

------------------

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew it should be raining. Flashes cold and snippets of eerie chanting surfaced distantly in her mind, until those thoughts were disinterestedly pushed aside and forgotten. It was not raining here. The wind that blew was dry and chill, tugging at her hair and clothes and leaching away the setting warmth of the sun until slim hands on her shoulders pulled her away from it.

"Stay out of the wind," a tired voice advised, as the owner of the hands stepped away from her. "He has too many spies in it."

She wondered what great secret he thought the creature of miasma's spies would discover. A tiny handful of wounded humans awaiting dark fall? She made a mental check of her remaining weapons: a bow across her back, taken from a fallen warrior when her own snapped in the earlier battle; the katana against her hip, cleaned now of gore and ichor, ready for use once again; and the flawlessly smooth jewel with its contrastingly sharp-edged chain resting in her left hand, glowing softly in the gloom of the cave.

"Midoriko," a sloshing, half-filled water-gourd was pressed into her stomach, as a leather-wrapped arm ending in a desert-tanned hand pulled her around and pushed her towards a cleared section of the floor. "Save your irritating fidgeting for Naraku."

She smiled weakly, the expression fighting its way through the lingering pain and exhaustion, and sank against the wall but did not sit. There was no time for proper rest. The wind was rising now, howling past their brief sanctuary, and on it carried the fell voices of waking undead. The host was coming.

------------------

Inuyasha cursed the rain and its ability to wash out scents as he approached the storage shed. He glanced downward to check the magic holding his demon side at bay. Dawn was coming within the next hour. He could feel the rising influence shifting him, and he could already smell and hear elusive traces of things that had been absent since sunset. He wouldn't change completely until it broke, but he was losing the fight to appear human.

The shed seemed quiet, and he could see a pile of what looked like abandoned blankets or sheets mounded in the doorway. The wavering hint of distortion around the windows and doors reassured him that Tetsusaiga's barrier still held despite the silence.

"Inuyasha!" Shippou shrieked, lunging forward as Inuyasha passed the threshold. Inuyasha looked down at the red-haired burr clinging to his waist before looking up to scan the rest of the room; the otherwise empty room: Kagome wasn't in sight.

Inuyasha pried Shippou away from his clothes, and hoisted him up to eye level. "Where's Kagome?"

"She left!" Shippou's hands flailed and his feet dangled. "I don't know what happened! I think she got hurt and she was rubbing at her ankle like it was bothering her. Then she passed out and when she woke up she didn't see me! And then she left!"

Inuyasha took a breath, and his face darkened at the taint of dark magic clinging to the air in the memory of the dust. With sinking worry, he realized that the ghouls may have been a distraction. There was almost no reason to strike at Kagome; _no reason _that didn't make it a better idea to strike at Miroku or Kaede.

Shippou leapt for Inuyasha's shoulder the instant his hands loosened and the kit steadied himself while Inuyasha slid Tetsusaiga into his obi. "Which way?" A small hand, tipped in a tiny claw that was edging out of the concealing glamour, pointed out the door.

"That's the path I saw her take. I couldn't follow, so I watched."

"Probably better you didn't." Inuyasha stalked forward, ignoring the pricks as Shippou's claws dug into his shoulder. As soon as they reached one of the trees scattered thickly around the shrine, Inuyasha leapt into the branches. "I can't leave you behind, so keep your head down, Shippou. If anything comes close, nail it with foxfire and run."

"What's out there?" Shippou asked, a trace of worried whine leeching into his voice. Inuyasha's answer was blunt, but not harsh.

"Ghouls. The Geas-bound and I already tangled with a few, but there has to be more. Whatever's controlling them is out there too."

------------------

Miasma choked the battlefield, staining the air with cloying darkness overlaid by blood and strangling the feeble light filtering into the cave. Rough-edged rocks bit into her legs as Midoriko collapsed against the cave wall, her breaths coming in labored gasps that gurgled unpleasantly in her aching chest. The coppery tang of blood stung the back of her throat and her voice did not seem to work properly. Her coughs brought up flecks of blood that spattered wet crimson across her hands, hands that were dangerously pale beneath the coating of sweat and grime. Her vision was fading, doubling and at times tripling before she wrestled it back into focus.

And then he came.

Naraku's eyes scanned the carnage with little interest lighting them as he passed casual attention over the broken remains of the destroyed mortals to fixate on her, the last one that breathed. Her blood scented the damp air and her sight was dimming noticeably as he approached, though she struggled against the encroaching darkness. Her right arm twitched, trying vainly to lift the shattered remains of her sword while the left hand remained clamped tightly against the deep wound on her side.

His long-fingered hand cupped her chin, forcing her face higher, and her neck to an uncomfortable angle. His garnet eyes glittered in mad triumph. "Again, and again, and again, your lives play themselves out into others' hands. What is it like being mortal, my Lady? I do hope it's painful."

Her eyes brightened with fury, reviving some of the fading light as she focused on his face. He frowned as she attempted to pull away from his touch and her mind denied any hold he exerted over her will with a surge of rose-tinted light. The light that seemed to be intensifying as Midoriko's life faded. She managed to rasp something unintelligible before a cough shook her body and fresh blood flecked her lips and his hand.

Naraku's thin lips stretched into a wicked smile as his long-nailed hand dropped from her face and wrapped almost caressingly around her throat. The life that had danced in her eyes began to flicker as she lost focus and Naraku's hand tightened around her neck. Midoriko struggled to draw breath and allowed her eyes to close, knowing what was coming with unusual foresight. Her neck would snap, crushed by his unnatural strength, and this life would end.

Her eyes snapped back open at the unexpected feel of a blade against her unprotected belly, and the wrenching agony as it plunged into her flesh. Her breathing took on an ominous gurgle as blood filled a pierced lung, and the jewel, coated in a slick sheen of blood, fell from her hand with a soft click of stone against stone.

Naraku released her, allowing gravity to slide her body off the blade and leave a sluggish fall of blood to drip from the steel as she collapsed. Her head cracked against the cavern's stone floor, and the world fragmented, shattered, and fell to pieces around her. Her sight blanked out in a blaze of pain and light, and nausea assaulted her stomach.

The faint breeze that reached them brought a taste of rain into the surrounding scent of deep earth and blood. Her armor dissolved as the lethargy she only now noticed began to lift from her mind. Shattered thoughts cut into her mind with glittering shards of confusion, and her eyes adjusted to the flickering light thrown by the ranks of candles rising around her.

A rustling scuff of movement caught her attention, drawing her eyes to the bloody blade clutched in a pale hand, and up a lithe body wrapped in a dark kimono. A feminine body at odds with the masculine one that had been there a moment before. A dream, something inside her whispered. Another dream like Kikyou's death.

And, at that, the dream shattered. Naraku's black hair and glittering crimson eyes shifted, bleaching to white hair and darkening into flat ebony eyes as Kagome snapped fully back into herself where she sprawled against the wet stone with the racking pain and terror from the wound beneath the spreading stain of blood on her chest. The ranks of pinpoint light from the candles – agonizingly bright even in their soft-glow light – etched out details of the creeping things lurking in the shadows beneath them and illuminating the woman's bone-white hair with shards of orange and gold.

Kagome tried to scream, and couldn't, found that anything beyond a whispering gasp was inaudible, as though her vocal cords had been sliced. Though, her throat felt intact, and was one of the few places that _didn't _hurt.

The woman stooped, her mouth twisting into a cruel smile of triumph, as she scooped something off the floor that caught the light and glittered. "Shikon no tama," she intoned, looking up so her dark eyes caught Kagome's and the confusion that fought with the agony in them. "And you have no idea what it is, do you?"

Kagome blinked at the conversational tone. The woman placed the glittery thing in a bleached bowl that looked eerily like the top of a skull, painstakingly carved into a latticework pattern of arcane symbols. The bowl was then set at the apex of one of the sunken lines Kagome could see snaking out from beneath her.

The lines – really more grooves carved into the dark rock, betraying paler stone beneath the polished surface they were carved into – wove and twisted with a sinuous, unspoken, malice, and darkened with the creeping stain of her blood. But not all of it. Kagome could feel the rattle of blood in her lungs with every hitched breath as surely as she could feel the cooling drip as it bled from her body. The pain kept her from hyperventilating by shooting tendrils of agony through her with even shallow breaths.

Her torturer watched dispassionately, and began a sibilant chant in a harsh, hissing language that carried with it a hint of brimstone rising into the air. Sound was fading, making everything seem distant, and Kagome's terror ratcheted upwards as the pain began to fade, and darkness encroached on her vision.

------------------

"At least it stopped raining," Shippou said, holding a hand up into the air to see if it could catch any raindrops he wasn't feeling.

"Then you won't get wet staying here," Inuyasha grunted and reached up to pluck Shippou off his shoulder and drop him on an taller cluster of branches that formed a twisting hollow near the trunk of the tree.

Shippou clung to the branches, his eyes widened as Inuyasha took a step further along his own branch and looked down to see if it was clear. "You're leaving me?"

"I'm not taking you in there," Inuyasha pointed at the maw of a cave that he'd never seen on the shrine grounds before. It looked torn from the surrounding earth, with broken trees and shattered stone littering the entrance where torn roots dangled. "And I'm sure that's where Kagome is. Just stay here. The rain is screwing with their tracking just as much as it is with mine, so nothing can scent you unless it comes through the trees. And remember what I said: if something comes, try and kill it, then run. Find one of the Geas-bound or Kaede."

Shippou quivered a bit, but dug his tiny claws into the bark and nodded firmly before dashing into the hollow. "If you're not back in ten minutes, I'm going after them anyway," he warned. "And then I'm going to go find Sesshoumaru and make him come save you."

Inuyasha snorted and dropped out of the tree, flexing with the impact to land easily and silently. He looked upward to make sure Shippou had disappeared before turning to face the darkness.

The air crawled with stained magic, tainted and foul where it oozed around his senses. One clawed hand hovered near the hilt of his sword, and he walked tense and alert, grateful for the familiarity of the steel humming in eager response and ready to be used.

Inuyasha approached the unnatural cave's mouth, and felt the tell-tale crackle of magic the moment before a barrier sprang up, sealing his path. Inuyasha temper flared at the obstruction, and he reached down to pick up a stone from the ground to throwing at the barrier to test its magic. The stone sailed through the wavering air marking the barrier's presence without remark, and Inuyasha frowned. Reaching out cautiously, he tapped a finger against the same place the stone had passed, and skidded back as a backwash of energy surged towards him.

Part of his mind ran through, and suggested, ways to disable the barrier quietly and avoid alerting whoever had placed it. Inuyasha ignored that part and drew Tetsusaiga.

The battered katana blazed into life, transforming into a massive iron fang, and a shimmering red hue glittered into being around the blade. It was not the most subtle way he had of slashing through the barrier, but the fastest, and he was no longer in any mood to find the spell's trigger and outsmart the ward.

Tetsusaiga's light refracted off the pools of rainwater scattered around as Inuyasha raised the blade and slashed savagely at the barrier. Blade and barrier met and clashed, snarling at one another in a blaze of light before Tetsusaiga tore through and bit deeply into the stone beneath. Inuyasha wrenched the sword out, but didn't re-sheathe it as he stalked deeper into the darkness. There were more ghouls lurking in the shadows, and the twisted creature who had sacrificed so many lives to create them as well.

The air within the cave felt still and dim light flickered in the distance. Inuyasha caught the wafting scent of melting wax and candle-smoke along with the gagging stench of the dead and dying. Cleaner earth scent also clung to the inside of his nose, and his ears caught the dark tones of a woman's voice speaking in measured cadence.

Inuyasha's hand tightened around Tetsusaiga's hilt, and he wanted nothing more than to unleash one of the sword's devastating attacks down the narrow corridor he stalked. The taste of Kagome's blood hung in the air, and the fluttering emotions that filtered through to him proved she was still alive. The amount of blood he could make out through the miasma of other smells told him she wouldn't remain alive much longer.

A breath of displaced air and a scattering fall of sharp stones warned him an instant before ghouls rained around him, dropping from the ceiling, and intent on feeding their terrible hunger with his life, and protecting their mistress. If he'd been human, with a human's senses and blind in the darkness, they'd have torn him apart.

Inuyasha slashed through the first, Tetsusaiga cleaving dead flesh from bone and splashing stilled blood across the living stone of the cavern. He felt cold sticky drops impact with his skin and fall in his hair, and a clawed hand snatch at his clothes, ripping a trailing sleeve before Inuyasha sliced through the grasping arm, beheaded the third ghoul, and returned to impale the second. The creature's rattling moan cut off, and the unholy glow in its eyes dimmed, then flickered out. Inuaysha yanked his blade free, letting the ghoul's body crumple to the floor.

He wiped at a trail of blood that was creeping down his face and flattened himself closer to the wall. The corridor bent here, and reflected candlelight glowed on the opposite wall. The chanting he'd heard earlier had stopped, distracted by the noise of the short fight or the annihilation of her creations. Inuyasha eased around the bend, to see into the room. More ghouls' eyes glowed in the darkness – the easiest part of them to see where they lurked beyond the candlelight – and he swore under his breath at the number.

A ritual was laid out, carved into the floor in a complicated array, and illuminated by dozens of candles. Kagome sprawled in the middle of it, pale and still with a frightening amount of crimson staining her clothes and glimmering where it pooled. Her blood seeped steadily from several wounds beneath her slashed clothing and crept sluggishly into channels carved into the cavern floor. Inuyasha tensed, trying to filter through the distraction of freshly spilt blood, pain, and fear to find the source of the dark magic swirling thickly through the air.

Dawn pulled at him, driving urgency through his veins, clashing against the terrible certainty that rash heroics would result in both his and Kagome's deaths. Ghouls were mindless slaves: insane, bestial souls, mutilated before being enslaved in their former bodies. They were dangerous, even with Tetsusaiga backing him up because unleashing the sword's power in the cavern wasn't an option. Even if he didn't collapse the entire place on top of them, Kagome would end up caught in the deadly blast.

Worse yet, whoever had created the wasn't mindless, and was probably overseeing the ritual. The woman's scent that he could pick out to match the chanting was saturated with the ozone and blood stench of blood necromancy. Her death would break the ritual, Inuyasha guessed – rituals never outlived their caster without being anchored to something – but he had no idea what that would do to Kagome.

The amount of blood he could see spilt already told him she needed a hospital, and a stray option ribboned through his mind at the thought. Inuyasha mentally savaged it, ignoring the instincts that were trying to overrun his rationality. Instincts that reasoned that Kagome, as a human, was fragile, but that she didn't necessarily need to remain human.

Snarling at his vampire side, and clenching his fist more tightly around the rough wrappings of Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha tensed. Magic-user first. If he could take her out fast enough, the ghouls would fall relatively easy. At the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about directed magic catching him in the back.

A final Word snarled through the air, almost knocking Inuyasha off his feet as the magic washed over him. Then, a weak rattle of dying breath caught his attention, and Inuyasha focused his full attention on Kagome. She'd grown unnaturally still, and the lack of even a weak and thready heartbeat resounded in the silence for a suspended moment.

Inuyasha snarled and dashed forward, planning abandoned in a single driving need to destroy. A white-haired sorceress crouched over a carved bowl at the tallest apex in the spell array and looked up as he entered. Her black eyes widened, surprise, puzzlement, and a touch of fear playing over her face.

Kagome's shriek startled them both, shattering the tableau, and Inuyasha wheeled to the girl he'd been certain was dead. Her back arched at an almost impossible angle and her eyes snapped open to stare, sightless and leached of color. Bloody tears escaped and traced haphazard paths down her face, leaving trails of viscous crimson in a gruesome spider's web across her skin.

"If you're here for her you're a little late," the sorceress told him. Inuyasha responded with a wordless snarl and dodged aside as the gathering of ghouls came at him. Grasping claws with unnatural strength, powered by broken souls, attacked, forcing Inuyasha's concentration to sharpen into the unending _now_ of survival.

Tetsusaiga pulsed in his grip, demanding to be unleashed. Inuyasha clamped down on the sword's power by force of will. More than half the ghouls were dismembered, released to the afterlife and unable to recalled. Inuyasha was diving for the remaining few when a tremor rocked the cavern. Stones and earth fell around him, and a shaft of earth punched upward.

The stone column slammed into him, and Inuyasha felt several ribs give under the blow with a sickening crack and a blaze of agony. Blood rush into his lungs, forcing a hacking cough to clear them. Inuyasha levered himself up and almost collapsed again as he found Kagome's shallowly-breathing form stretched out beside him.

Wiping blood from his mouth, Inuyasha finished climbing to his feet, and stood close enough to Kagome to feel her against his heels. The sorceress stood before him now, hand raised from casting and surrounded by her remaining creations, and watched him with barely disguised annoyance. The blow would have killed him if he'd been human; shattering bone and rupturing veins. But Inuyasha wasn't human and he was difficult to kill.

"Kaze no Kizu!" Inuyasha swung his blade down, and released the golden power that pushed against his soul just as the unseen sun broke the horizon.

The world shifted and Inuyasha staggered as a cold fire rushed through his veins, throbbing like the pulse of the world. He crashed to one knee, the point of Tetsusaiga's blade buried into the stone. Darkness leeched from the hair that fell unbound around him, spreading like white ink over black parchment.

Inuyasha ignored the deep furrows that tore into the stone, still glowing with the golden residue of the sword's magic, and the scattered explosion of ghoul pieces and dropped to his knees beside Kagome. The smell of death magic had evaporated along with the witch and her ghouls and left behind the more cloying scent of mortal death.

Kagome's limp body was traced with a network of bruises and small cuts, as though she'd fought through a pitched battle and barely come out of it alive. Her shrieks from earlier had subsided to a pained whimper. Her eyes remained open, but had shifted from draining of natural color to taking on an ominous glow. Whatever the sorceress had done was far more involved than utilizing the power of a tormented death. Magic still twisted through Kagome's form, and breaking the ritual hadn't stopped it.

"Shh," Inuyasha soothed, wiping the blood away from her throat and feeling for a pulse. He found it: all but gone, and slowing with each beat. Inuyasha cursed silently and gathered the dying girl to his chest.

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**Kat's Notes:** Reposting because the site's being buggy _again_, and not sending out update alerts. Personally, I depend on them to know when something's been updated that I'm reading. That's why they're there! So I apologize. 

Let's see ... added in larger spacing for the scene switches, which the site's buggery idea of formatting promptly _ate_. I think I have it fixed. If someone would let me know how it's working for everyone? Easier to follow? If not, let me know, and I'll go figure something else out that's more noticeable.

Not much else to say on my end. I attracted my very first flame for this story last chapter. I'm so proud of it! I'm leaving it right where it is because I think it's funny. Until next time everyone! It's about time to check in on Miroku, I think.


	5. The Balance Between Life and Death

Look! The site finally let me upload this chapter! It hasn't been cooperating for about two weeks now. Also, since I'm no longer attempting to pass the graduate courses of doom, and working, I am hoping for a more regular update schedule. Like ... way less than four month breaks in between.

As always ... if you see a problem, drop me a line and I'll fix it. Status updates can always be found on my profile page. Now, I have to go see a werewolf about a horse.

* * *

**Chapter 5 – The Balance Between Life and Death**

_For certain is death for the born_

_And certain is birth for the dead;_

_Therefore over the inevitable_

_Thou shouldst not grieve._

.: Bhagavad Gita :.

Kagome's life faded with each weakening beat of her heart, the unholy glow brightened her eyes, and Inuyasha cursed violently. He had a decision before him and only a few precious minutes to make it. Something needed to replace the blood she had lost. It pooled around them, adding fresh gore to the remnants of the ghouls and he knew it was more than a human could lose and still survive. Inuyasha had doubts that the human doctors could save her, even if he managed to get her into a hospital that wouldn't take one look at his white hair and fuzzy ears, and start screaming and attacking him with scalpels.

Most hospitals weren't stocked or staffed for counteracting magic anyway. The ones that were had Geas-bound, witches, and a number of other beings among the healers that would see his youkai features, then notice the vampire magic clinging to him, and start screaming and attacking him with _silver_ scalpels and bone knives.

He coughed, attempting to clear the death stench from his lungs and nose, and filter out the darker ichor of the ghouls. The smell was clinging to Kagome along with the ionized tang of magic as Inuyasha stood and started out of the cave. Shippou would still be waiting for him, and probably had passed worried by now and gone straight up to panicked. Not that carrying out another bloodied victim of dark magic was going to calm Shippou down.

Greyish light from the rising dawn illuminated the cave's mouth, and Inuyasha paused. The breath of wind that carried tantalizing hints of the morning into him was blowing into the cave, which meant that Shippou wouldn't notice them until Inuyasha emerged from the rocks. He weighed his options against his responsibilities for a moment before lowering Kagome to the ground and propping her upright against himself. Now they were further from the nexus of dark magic, he could use a small amount his own blood to replace some of what she'd lost. It might be enough to stabilize her and heal her wounds without resorting to a full change. At the worst, it would give him a few minutes to deal with Shippou.

Inuyasha slit a finger with the claw of his thumb, and let a dark bead of blood rise to the surface. The sting faded in moments, and the small cut would heal in within a few minutes. He gently pried Kagome's mouth open, and slid his finger in under her tongue. The veins there would absorb his blood into her own the quickest way short of a transfusion. He saw her body relax. Her heartbeat didn't strengthen, but it settled into a steady pulse instead of weakening further. Her eyes opened slightly, glittering with a mindless malevolence that a drop of blood wasn't enough to cure.

Inuyasha made her as comfortable as he could on the stone floor, swearing under his breath because he could feel the strength he'd given her fading already, eaten by the clinging magic that was also stealing her humanity. Cursing under his breath, he dashed out of the cave and towards the tree he'd left Shippou clinging to.

"Shippou! Runt, you'd better not have wandered off!" he called into the branches, following with a leap to one of the lower ones. He brushed away the leaves Shippou had piled against the tree hollow, and peered inside. "Kid?"

Glittery eyes peered right back for an instant before a flare of blue fire caught Inuyasha full in the face. A russet blur streaked past the dazzled hanyou, but Inuyasha managed to snag a fistful of fox-tail before the kit escaped.

"Dammit, brat! What was that for?!" Inuyasha demanded.

"You said if anything came after me to attack it and run!" Shippou flailed, trying to untangle his tail from Inuyasha's grip. "Put me down!"

Inuyasha scrubbed at his eyes with his free hand and snarled back, "I didn't mean me! Use your nose, moron! I'm not a ghoul!"

Shippou's tone took on a sulky cast as he gave up his escape attempt and settled for swinging from Inuyasha's claws. "You could still have been a doppleganger."

"Because a vampire-youkai hanyou – and a dog at that – is clearly a logical choice to impersonate in any situation, especially with a runt kitsune." Inuyasha said, rolling his eyes and dropping Shippou onto an eye-level branch. "Shippou, if a doppleganger got that close to _me_, we'd both be totally screwed anyway." A flush colored Shippou's cheeks as he ignored Inuyasha and went to work smoothing his abused tail. Inuyasha snorted and shook his head. "The Geas-bound have cleaned up the ghouls by now. I need you to go find Kaede and then stay with her until I come and get you."

Shippou looked up from his tail. "Did you find Kagome?"

Inuyasha rubbed at his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. But, she's not in very good shape and needs help. That's why you're going to go to the old miko while I help Kagome." _'By killing her,'_ a corner of his mind pointed out. Inuyasha shoved that corner into a mental closet, and turned his attention back to Shippou. His choices were narrowing into doing something drastic to save Kagome, or allowing her to die and wait the years, decades, or centuries until her eventual rebirth. Shippou fidgeted as he gauged the distance to the ground, then slid down the trunk. Inuyasha jumped, landing easily on the paving stones and crossed his arms. "Oi, runt? You've still got a tail."

Shippou sighed and squeezed his eyes closed. His tail disappeared with a pop and a waft of pink smoke, and the tips of his ears softened, melting into human-looking round ears. Shippou opened his eyes and held out his arms in a silent ta-da for Inuyasha's inspection, sticking one tabi and sandal-clad foot from under the edge of his yukata. Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Get going, runt."

Shippou dropped his arms and scampered off, running quietly and staying alert as Inuyasha watched him go. Inuyasha turned back towards the cave.

Truthfully, he had intended to change her eventually. He wasn't willing to surrender the girl to old age and mortality and endure more long decades of loneliness any more than he was willing to surrender her to her injuries now. However, their binding; Kagome's changing; all of it was supposed to be special, marked by ceremony and done when she had a clue about what was happening and about the world she was entering! _Not_ surrounded by the bodies of ghouls, or when they were both blood-soaked and cold.

Inuyasha knelt beside her and pressed two fingers to her throat. He could hear her pulse, faint and too fast, but the feel of it decided everything. _'She's__dying. Screw the ceremony!'_ He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, pouring a silent apology with a trace of regret into the act before dropping his lips to her throat.

Usually, his vampiric half would come to the forefront in the presence of blood, seizing control and shunting away the inu-youkai blood. Kagome's blood, and the sheer amount of it splattering both their clothes, seduced him more than Inuyasha cared to admit.He felt his fangs lengthening, but resisted the urge to open the veins traced in blue beneath her dangerously pale skin, and found it wasn't impossible.

With Kagome already close to death, he felt no inner conflict of instinct and rationality. She'd lost so much blood already, he couldn't drain more and keep her alive enough for the change. He would have to replace part of it with his own and then be sure she fed properly after she woke.

Inuyasha shifted Kagome, juggling her limp form so he could reach his free wrist with his other hand's claws, and slit his wrist – slicing deeply enough that it didn't heal immediately. Tilting his wrist so the blood didn't drip down his arm or to the ground, he raised it to Kagome's lips and coaxed her mouth open, hoping she would swallow.

Kagome sputtered at the metallic taste of the blood in her mouth and turned away. Inuyasha growled softly and repositioned her, bracing her body against his, trapping her more securely in his arms.

Inuyasha tried again, tangling one hand in her hair and bringing his bleeding wrist to her lips. Kagome fought his hold with her remaining strength and kept her mouth firmly closed, uttering a weak sound of protest when he didn't let her move. "Damn it, Kagome!"Inuyasha snarled. "Quit fighting me!"

Kagome huffed slightly and turned to burrow into his chest. Inuyasha sighed and decided to try another tactic. He reopened his healing wrist and pulled the blood into his own mouth. Inuyasha shifted Kagome away from his chest then closed that slight gap between them and sealed his mouth to hers.

Inuyasha gently coaxed her mouth open and let his blood flow into her mouth. He smiled against her lips as she swallowed reflexively and moved back. Inuyasha waited until he detected the shift in her scent that marked the beginning of the change before he placed his wrist against her lips again and smiling when she swallowed without protest.

Inuyasha licked the stray drops of blood from his lips and watching with satisfaction as Kagome's wounds began to heal and her eyelids moved. Inuyasha buried his nose in her hair, reveling in Kagome's scent as it shifted with each breath. The fragile vibrancy of mortality faded and the intoxicating wildness of a moon-laced night wove itself through her scent. Her heartbeat weakened further and finally stopped completely while Inuyasha gradually felt her aura and scent shift fully away from human. The stench of the dying began fading from the air and Inuyasha felt his own terror drain away as Kagome moved steadily away from the clutches of death.

The final wounds closed over, leaving long shiny pink trails along Kagome's arms and abdomen. Her eyes fluttered open, but they remained blank and unseeing, the fading brown almost swallowed up by ebony pupil.

As the final change settled into her, Kagome shifted restlessly in his arms, her newly wakened instincts overriding her murky state of consciousness. Kagome's warm breath washed over Inuyasha's throat. The steady thrum of his blood called to her and, seduced by the lilting pulse, Kagome sank her untried fangs into Inuyasha's jugular. Inuyasha's pleased chuckle vibrated through both of them as she drank greedily, drawing the borrowed warmth into her mouth and letting it chase away the lingering coldness in her limbs.

After several long moments, Inuyasha pulled away, carefully sliding Kagome's fangs from his throat and sighing as she growled in displeasure, struggling against his restraining hold. "Sleep until we're safe," Inuyasha whispered over her, adding a tendril of power to the command. Immediately, Kagome ceased struggling and the tension drained from her body, leave her splayed bonelessly across his chest.

Inuyasha levered himself to his feet and settled Kagome securely. With a quick leap, he jumped into the trees. The branches would provide sufficient cover for now. Inuyasha planned to keep to the rooftops and trees, away from prying human eyes, until he reached Kaede's shrine to retrieve Shippou.

----------------------

Miroku rotated his wrist, wincing at the sharp pain the motion brought along with the light chiming sound of the silver beads looped around his wrist and hand. He hated days like this; when a night off suddenly became "all hands on deck, undead _horde_ approaching." At least Kagome was safe. He had gone back to the storage shed, and found a few blankets left behind, but no traces of a struggle. With the ghouls out prowling, Inuyasha had probably just focused on getting Kagome and Shippou to safety instead of leaving behind a clean scene. Miroku had folded the abandoned blankets and put them away before making his way to Kaede's house.

Bankotsu passed in front of him and Miroku heard a scrape across the tile as the other hunter pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and dropped into it. "Any casualties?"

Miroku shook his head. "The storm drove everyone under cover. Any idea what caused this? Where the ghouls came from?"

"Found a cavern with a ritual laid out. Looks like some necromancer was using the shrine's energy for summoning, but something put an end to it. The necromancer might have been using the ghouls to call up something nasty," Bankotsu said, pulling the tie free from the ratty braid his hair was trying to escape. "By the time I got there, all I could see were bits ghouls all over the place, and a screwed up ritual." Bankotsu traced squiggly lines on the table with a finger as he spoke. "Looks like ground zero of some serious dark witchery to me, and anyone shoddy enough to have a Summon go up the tubes that badly probably didn't have perfect control of their ghouls, which tells us why there were ghouls hunting in the shrine. I warded the entrance, but we'd better see if one of the covens can piece it together."

Miroku pulled his comb out from an inner pocket of his jacket, and slid it across the table to the other hunter. "Inuyasha said it was a ritual after we discovered the first ghoul," he mused.

Bankotsu paused, fingers tangled in a knot of hair. "Who? Didn't know there were any other Geas Bound in the area"

"A youkai my sister was with when the storm started. He brought her back here to Kaede's after we realized someone was turning ghouls loose in the shrine."

"A youkai?" Bankotsu asked, dropping his half-finished braid and reaching over to smack the back of Miroku's head, knocking him forward. "Higurashi, you left your _sister_ with some random youkai you'd just met? Tell me you at least know where she is _now_, because I haven't seen her since I got here!"

Miroku responded by pushing himself to his feet and latching onto Bankotsu's arm. Bankotsu allowed himself to be hauled up and pushed out the door, snatching at his abandoned hair tie on the way.

"Miroku, just find Kaede," Bankotsu said, shrugging off the other hunter's grip and pulling his hair into a low tail as they left the room. "See if this Inuyasha brought Kagome back here or not and then ... well, hell, maybe he _did_ come here and then walked her home before we showed up! It's the middle of the night. I would have taken her home if you'd sent her with me!"

"_You _would have. If he _didn't_ ..."

Bankotsu cut him off. "If he didn't, then she's kidnaped. If she is, we'll find her. And there's not a lot of reason to grab her, unless you've decided to tell her things she has no business knowing."

They crossed the threshold into the house's main room, and found a wrinkled old woman setting the house phone back into its cradle on an end table. The tense set of Miroku's shoulders ratcheted up another notch, and Bankotsu pushed him aside before waving to get the woman's attention. "Kaede, have you seen Kagome? Miroku sent her this way with some youkai he didn't know hours ago."

Kaede's eyebrows quirked upward. "If the youkai's name is Inuyasha, then I know him quite well."

"Well, you didn't screw up as badly as we thought," Bankotsu said, eyeing Miroku, who had the good grace to look embarrassed. "So they're here?"

Kaede shook her head and picked up the teacup that waited beside her. "No, I sent the three of them home. Inuyasha has a younger brother that had already stayed up well past his bedtime." She took a sip before continuing. "Inuyasha, however, did call to tell me everyone was safely indoors."

"Well, disaster averted," Bankotsu said, trailing off in a yawn. "And I'm going home. Miroku was first on the scene, so he gets to make the report to the elders."

"After he and I discuss a few things," Kaede added. "Like leaving your younger sister with a youkai while you went off to play with the dead things."

Bankotsu chuckled at the twitch Kaede's deceptively mild voice elicited from Miroku, and waved to both before slipping out the door. The door clicked shut, and the room's reactivating wards whispered through the shrine's magic like a fall of feathers. Miroku crammed his hands into his coat pockets, pushing aside a spare dagger, several paper ofuda and clutching a slender phone (half willing it to ring), as Kaede regarded him over the top of her teacup. She watched him with an air of expectance for several heartbeats before Miroku sighed and sank into the chair opposite her. "Is Kagome all right? Did she see anything she wasn't supposed to?"

Kaede set her cup down folded her hands in her lap, inclining her head solemnly but looked at the younger hunter. "She will see the morning. However, you will be explaining a few things about your family business that have nothing to do with the court room."

Miroku straightened, then sank against the back of his chair, and covered his eyes with one hand. "Please do not tell me Inuyasha had to kill a ghoul in front of Kagome."

"Not while she was conscious, no," Kaede said. "But, Inuyasha said there were quite a few he destroyed when he disrupted the ritual and drove off the necromancer."

Miroku stared in horror as the words "ghoul", "ritual", and "Inuyasha" rattled around in his mind, connecting in increasingly horrific scenarios as his imagination put them together. Kaede watched him silently, counting down from five in her mind.

"Miroku, breathe," Kaede advised. "Kagome will not follow your father."

Miroku winced, and looked away in guilt. A chair scraped against the wood floor, and Miroku heard the soft clink of porcelain accompany the waft of oolong tea in the air. The cup itself appeared in front of him moments later, dark amber liquid swishing against the sides, and the trailing sleeve of Kaede's yukata brushed his knees. Miroku took the cup in both hands, and stared into it for a moment before swallowing a mouthful. "How did Kagome end up in the ritual?"

"She was enchanted. Shippou said she collapsed, and then didn't seem to see or hear him when she awoke. She walked off, and the wards Inuyasha had raised to stop demon or undead from harming them trapped Shippou inside."

"Probably a good thing," Miroku sighed. "Or there would have been two rescues needed. A kitsune as young as Shippou wouldn't have been able to protect himself, let alone protect Kagome as well. How was Inuyasha able to track them? The rain ..."

"His is half inu-youkai." Kaede had reclaimed her chair, but left her teacup cooling beside her. "And his mother is a former Geasbound who trained her son, even though he wasn't in the succession line. He has sharper senses than most, and the skill to follow a magic trail."

"Oh." Miroku stared into his cup for a moment, swirling the liquid inside it. "That explains why he helped me."

"Inuyasha has no love for dark magic," Kaede agreed, tapping the nails of one hand against the wood of her armrest as she watched her godson's reactions. "Though his father is close to Lady Izayoi, and that was fortunate for Kagome."

Miroku's head snapped up, and his eyes narrowed. "I thought Kagome was okay. Unless you decided that introducing her a vampire would help her cope, something tells me she's not."

Kaede sighed and shook her head. "Miroku, there is no simple or comfortable way to say this, so I won't bother. The ghouls came from the ritual. The only choice we could give her was between deaths."

Color drained steadily from Miroku's face as Kaede remained silent, and a tremor rattled the cup in his hand until he set it aside. "I need to sit down ..."

"You are sitting down." Kaede took a sip of her tea, her mouth curving into a dry smile.

"Good for me" Miroku dropped his head into his hands and slumped forward. "We lost dad _last year_. How will mom deal with losing Kagome? How will _Souta_?"

"Your mother is stronger than you give her credit, and there is no reason to tell Souta anything. Kagome is simply not human. She is sane, she is in the best care possible, and she will wake sometime tomorrow."

"As a vampire."

"Yes, Miroku. As a vampire."

"Where is Kagome now?" Miroku asked.

"With Inuyasha. He took her and Shippou home with him after doing what he could for her, and then bringing her to me. It was faster than taking them all the way to the residence of Western Lord." Kaede pushed herself to her feet, and walked to where the ward symbol was etched into the frame of the door. The wards fell at her touch, and Miroku felt the air lighten around them. Heavy wards, he realized, ones that would muffle their conversation and probably trap both in the room until dismantled by Kaede's will. "There are other things I think you should know, but they are things only he can tell you."

"He?" Miroku stood to follow, as Kaede pushed the door aside. "You mean Inuyasha?"

Kaede nodded. "But first, I think Kagome would appreciate having her mother there when she wakes up."

* * *

**  
Creatures and Words of Interest:**

_Doppleganger_ – A creature that can take on the form of another creature. It's a member of the Unseelie court.

_Geas-bound_ – Vampire hunters. Usually human, and enchanted with supernatural abilities that allows them to hunt and destroy vampires.

_Hanyou_ – literally "half demon". Used to refer to a crossbreed between a youkai and another creature. Usually that creature is human or fae, but can (in Inuyasha's case) be vampire. Hanyou always have certain times when he or she loses his or her youkai nature.

_Youkai_ – Sometimes referred to as "demons", youkai are supernatural creatures usually with a true form of an animal. The human forms are often characterized by pointed ears, fangs, claws, etc ... They bear some resemblance in their humanoid forms to their animal forms and vice versa.


	6. Reality Beckons

**Disclaimer: **Chapter one calls to you.

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Reality Beckons**

"_If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."_

.: George Bernard Shaw :.

Kagome rarely remembered her dreams – with the notable exception of her reoccurring nightmare – but some of her dreams lately had been such vivid nightmares they refused to die swiftly. The night of the festival had just been added to the memorable nightmare category, she murkily decided, but at least had been an interesting change and better than the nightmare reliving a bloody hunt and her doppelganger's death.

A breeze caught the gauzy material canopied above her, causing it to shimmer slightly in the red light of the setting sun. Kagome fuzzily wondered when her bed had acquired a gauze canopy as she swum out of her numbing slumber. She snapped fully awake at that thought. About all her apartment had room for was a slightly-worn futon. Futon's didn't come with canopies! Kagome levered herself up on her elbows to find herself nestled in something that was decidedly not her bed! It didn't seem as though she was in a bed at all. More like a . . . nest. And the yukata that hugged her body in warm silk was most definitely not hers!

Kagome looked about herself at the small sea of rich cushions that filled a hollow in the floor she was ensconced in and plucked absently at the soft blanket that covered her. The canopy she'd noticed earlier could be easily let down for privacy, but was drawn back by long tasseled cords, allowing a breeze and the remaining sunlight to circulate through the room from the open balcony doors on the far side. Overall, the room looked elegant, wealthy. It also, obviously, wasn't meant for a female occupant. Most females, in Kagome's experience, wouldn't be comfortable sleeping in a room with a small arsenal of bladed weapons prominently displayed along the walls.

Where the devil was she? More importantly, who had brought her here?

The soft scrape of a sliding door caught her attention and a young man B not much older than herself – stepped into the room. He was exiting what looked like a bathroom on the other side of the room, a large towel draped around his head as he rubbed at his long silver hair.

He pulled the towel away, hanging it around his neck and over the archaic traditional clothes he wore. Kagome blinked at the pair of furry white ears peaking out of his ruffled white hair and leaned forward slightly in curiosity. What was he? A youkai? She remembered her grandfather waffling on about youkai and vampires and other make-believe things. However, they usually fell into the "evil, nasty, horrible things" category.

One ear swiveled backward at the sound of shifting bedclothes from her movement and Kagome stilled. He turned his face back over his shoulder and grinned, giving her a glimpse of gleaming fangs.

"Sleep well?"

Kagome shrieked and vaulted to her feet. She tried to, anyway. Instead of leaping into the defensive stance she aimed for, she managed to tangle her legs and feet in her unwieldy clothes and the unstable pillows, and tumble backward as she lost her balance.

Her new companion was there almost instantly, catching her before she landed and scooping her easily into his arms. He shook his head as he carried her out of the nest and set her back on her feet with surprising gentleness. "Clumsy idiot."

Kagome's hands drifted curiously closer to the youkai's furry white ears. Somewhere, deep in her mind, was a voice telling her that he probably wouldn't appreciate her latching onto his ears without so much as a by-your-leave, but she was ignoring it. Then she realized what he'd just called her and fury raced through her veins. Her hands closed the remaining distance to yank, hard, on those furry ears. He yelped and instinctively released her as he reached up to massage the wounded ear. Kagome, who still had a good grip on his ears, shrieked as her support was removed and she plummeted back into the pillow-nest, dragging the white-haired boy down along with her.

"Wench! That hurt!" he growled, reaching up to pull one of the smaller pillows off his face so he could glare at the girl sprawled on top of him. Kagome still had a stranglehold on his ears, which were twitching in her hands and trying to lay themselves back.

"Don't call me names, moron," she hissed back, giving his ears another hard pull. His growl cut off with a pained yelp. Kagome glared down at him and leaned fractionally closer. "Where am I?"

"My room," he answered, wincing a bit and trying to ease one of his hands out from underneath himself so he could rescue his abused ears. Kagome shifted her weight and pinned the wandering hand firmly under her knee.

Kagome's hands left his ears and fastened themselves around his throat. The glare she directed at him was full of flame and her hands flexed in a way that boded extremely ill if she didn't like his next answer. Inuyasha hid a wince as her nails pierced his skin. She obviously hadn't noticed that they'd become stronger and sharper since her transformation. "What am I doing here? And who are you?" she hissed, enunciating each word with deadly precision.

Ignoring the hands wrapped threateningly around his throat and the trickles of his blood under her fingernails, the hanyou regarded her with vivid gold eyes. "My name is Inuyasha."

Kagome's eyes flickered from his gold eyes to his silver hair and furry ears before coming back to his eyes. He could see a trace of confused doubt in their grey-blue depths. "Inu ... _you can't be_!"

"Can't be?" He raised an eyebrow. Now she looked downright angry with him as well as confused.

"Look, whoever you are," she hissed. "The last while is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure my chances of running into two Inuyasha's,_ who look nothing alike_, in one day are almost nothing. In fact, here's a better question: _what_ are you?"

He barked a short laugh and, with a sharp twist of his body, he had her splayed beneath him before she had time to blink, her wrists captured by his hands and stretched above her head. There was, he decided, no reason not to tell her. Inuyasha smiled, purposely revealing his slender fangs and flexed his claws just enough that they pricked the skin of her wrists. "What do you think I am?"

Kagome squeaked, an unfamiliar sensation ribboning through her at the controlled strength she felt in the body pinning her. "A . . a youkai. Kitsune!"

He chuckled again; a slightly harsh, darkly amused laugh. "Half right. But not kitsune. That'd be Shippou."

"What . . ." Kagome swallowed and found her voice again. Her initial fear began abating, leaving annoyance at the youkai's high-handed attitude. "_Shippou? _But Shippou's ..."

"A kitsune kit," Inuyasha finished for her. "Youkai don't pop out of the ground as adults, you know."

"Grandpa never mentioned one way or the other," Kagome said. "And that's where I usually heard the crazy legends. You said you were only half youkai, so what's the other half?"

Inuyasha shifted and caught both her wrists in his left hand, freeing the right. He tapped a claw against her lips. "You tell me."

Kagome reflexively licked her lips, a nervous reaction from the light brush of Inuyasha's calloused finger. Her tongue caught something sharp and Kagome gasped. She tasted blood for a brief moment before the taste and pain faded and all but a slight tingling remained. She barely registered Inuyasha's gold eyes watching her reaction intently.

Startled more than hurt, Kagome touched her tongue to her lips again and slowly repeated her earlier action, trying to discover what had cut her. She found a pair of delicate, but very sharp teeth replacing her previously-dull human canines.

Memories flickered across her mind of a sharp pain in her ankle causing her to stumble, and Shippou's panic as everything went fuzzy to a white-haired woman illuminated by candles, surrounded by creatures with teeth sharp enough to bite through bone.

Kagome ran her tongue over her fangs again and then she did the only logical thing for the situation.

She screamed.

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his skull and he slapped a hand over Kagome's mouth, cutting off her screams and her air. Kagome struggled against his hold, surprised when he noticeably strained to keep her still, then she put her new fangs to use and bit him.

Inuyasha swore violently and snatched his hand back. "Damn it, girl, didn't you get enough of my blood earlier?"

Kagome stilled, her grey-blue eyes staring up at Inuyasha, wide with confused surprise at his question. She honestly had no idea how to answer him. The idea of his blood in her mouth was repulsive. But Kagome gave him a hissed 'no' as the reality awoke a traitorous craving deep within her. Her surprise and confusion were quickly giving way to fear and anger.

Inuyasha's ears pinned forward, wondering if she'd managed to faint with her eyes open.

"What are you talking about, Inuyasha? I swear that if you don't really answer me this time . . ." Kagome snarled, completely unaware of the pale violet aura that was suddenly swirling about her.

"I'm a nosferatu hanyou: a vampire and a youkai," Inuyasha answered, his eyes lighting up as he looked pleased about something. "And you're nosferatu."

"You're a what?" Kagome swallowed uncomfortably and the pale aura flickered out. "_I'm_ a what?"

"Nosferatu," he repeated slowly, earning another annoyed glare from the girl beneath him. "You're stronger than some common vampire."

"Vampires don't exist."

Inuyasha frowned at her, then sighed. "Then how, wench, do you explain your fangs?" he asked before tapping her between the eyes with a claw. "Or that your eyes changed color? Stealth surgery? You're not human anymore. Get over it."

"Vampires. Don't. Exist," Kagome insisted. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. "And my eyes are brown, just like they've always been. This is all just part of that same crazy dream. Shippou must have pulled one of the boxes he was climbing like a deranged monkey down on top of me. I'm unconscious and probably lying in a hospital bed in a coma right now. This is all a delusion." She opened one eye so she could see the hanyou pinning her to the floor. "At least my delusions this time are pretty, and not torturing me to death."

Kagome closed her eye again and missed the color that touched Inuyasha's cheeks at her comment, but she heard his growl. "What the hell are you talking about? Shippou said you tripped, yeah, but you didn't collapse until later. You got attacked for hell only knows what reason, and nearly got killed by some ghoul-summoning witch in a blood ritual!"

"No I didn't, you insufferable jerk!" Kagome yelled back, struggling against his hold again. AI'm just unconscious somewhere and dreaming, because normal people don't believe in ghouls, or witches, or vampires, or crazy psychopaths with red eyes named Naraku coming to torture them in their dreams! I'm normal, Inuyasha! My family is normal!" Her knee worked free and caught Inuyasha in the solar plexus. He huffed in pain as the breath was knocked out of him. "And you don't exist!"

Inuyasha growl in irritation as he finally rolled off her and hauled them both to their feet. Kagome resisted the urge to blink at his sudden change of moods. The arrogance was still there, but he'd been toying with her – and enjoying it, damn him. Now he looked annoyed and unsettled.

"Did you see Naraku?" Inuyasha demanded, his voice threaded with urgency and a strangled sort of fear. "I didn't see any sign of him in that cave when I went in after you, so how do you know that name?"

"He ... I ... it was in my dream," Kagome said. "I don't remember all of it. I think he killed me. Right before it all switched to the witch and her creepy glowing-eyed monsters."

"Ghouls," Inuyasha filled in for her. "Those were ghouls, and the witch wasn't a dream. I damn well hope Naraku was. Come on," he said, grabbing her wrist and tugging her along behind him.

"Inuyasha! I'm not dressed!" Kagome protested as her thunderous-looking companion pulled her toward the door and she clutched at the opening of her yukata with her free hand.

He spared her a glance, but didn't slow his pace and yanked her out into a long hallway. "You're covered."

Kagome gaped at him for an instant before digging her heels into the tiled floor, halting their progress and opening her mouth to tell him exactly where he could stick his overbearing attitude.

"Kagome," he sighed, not looking at her. "Don't. We need to straighten things out and you're not listening to me. We don't have time for your misplaced modesty."

Kagome bristled like an angry cat but her angry tirade turned into a surprised squeak as Inuyasha yanked her forward again and out of the hallway which ended at a wide balcony, with a sweeping staircase on either side. Kagome screamed as Inuyasha didn't bother with the stairs and jumped from the center, pulling her along behind him.

Inuyasha landed easily and his arms were there, wrapping around Kagome's waist briefly until she found her balance.

"There, see?" he said over his shoulder as they walked sedately towards a small door that stood directly below where they'd just leaped off. "If you were human, you'd have broken your leg in that jump."

Kagome craned her neck to look up the three-meter drop they'd just cleared with surprising ease and shook her head. Inuyasha was right. She _shouldn't_ have landed unscathed, but she didn't feel anything worse than the fading adrenalin from Inuyasha's little stunt.

Inuyasha gave Kagome's wrist one more pull and propelled her past him, through the open doorway before he followed and the door swung shut behind them. Flickering light from the fire set in the hearth along the far wall added warmth to the relatively subdued electric lights. Sitting chairs and two sofa's helped create the illusion of a cozy refuge from the quickly deepening shadows outside the arched windows of the room.

Four people looked up at Kagome and Inuyasha's entrance. Kaede nodded silently and folded her hands in her lap. Somehow, Kagome couldn't bring herself to be too shocked at Kaede's presence. The old miko had always been one to see far more than she spoke of. It was the other three B the petite woman smiling at Kagome from the sofa, the old man sitting in a deeply padded armchair, and the young man standing beside the fireplace B that made Kagome pull up short and stare in disbelief for a full minute.

"Miroku? Jii-chan? Mama?!"

Tense silence met Kagome's squeaked exclamation. Miroku avoided her eyes by casting a scowl of disapproval at the hanyou behind his sister; Kaede merely looked tired and resigned but Kagome's mother looked surprisingly calm. Her grandfather rifled through a small stack of ofuda, muttering charms against vampires and evil under his breath. Kagome would have worried if it had been anyone other than Jiichan. She'd spent her life watching her grandfather "ward off evil" and, as far as she could tell, it hadn't worked yet. However, the way her life was going, Kagome wondered how surprised she'd be if he suddenly called down lightning or opened a portal to the netherworld and summoned an oni to do battle with Inuyasha. Maybe her father had been a tengu, and she'd just never known it.

All in all, her family looked and acted perfectly normal. And that worried Kagome. Nothing about today had been even remotely normal. Part of her still fervently hoped she'd wake up soon. "What are you all doing here?" Kagome demanded, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why aren't any of you the slightest bit upset?"

At her question, Kagome's family exchanged guilty glances and refused to look at her. Kagome looked back over her shoulder to where Inuyasha leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He didn't seem surprised either, but at least he was looking at her. "Inuyasha?"

"You're the one who insisted they were normal'." Inuyasha shrugged, looking completely relaxed, with only the continual twitch and swivel of his ears betraying his alertness. His gold eyes raised and looked past Kagome to her family. "She knows most of it now. You'd better just tell her the rest and get it over with. We've got bigger problems than your family secrets."

"Your own family secrets rights," Miroku said, switching his attention from the floor to the hanyou. "Right, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha snorted. "We'll get to mine, priest. Don't think you're dodging out so easy."

Miroku muttered something and Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "What was that?"

"I said: there's nothing easy about this," he repeated for her, turning from the illumination of the fireplace as his violet eyes watched Kagome. "You and Souta weren't ever supposed to get involved in this, Kagome. You were normal, and that gave you some protection."

Kagome bit her lip and hissed at the sharp, sudden pain of her fang piercing into it. A sluggish rivulet of blood trickled into her mouth before the tiny wound healed over. "I'm not now," she said peevishly, feeling a tremor quake through her hand.

Inuyasha stepped forward, scooped her up into his arms and deposited her in a deeply-padded armchair. "It'll seem normal eventually. In a century, you might not even remember being human. Talk to your family. I'll be right back." Kagome fought with herself between annoyance at Inuyasha's manhandling – she didn't need to be carried! – and the blushing at the sensation of his breath whispering past her ear.

Miroku glared murderously at the door Inuyasha had just exited, muttering, "He's probably still vulnerable to white ash," as his right hand drifting to a pocket of his long coat. "And probably silver as well."

"Only if you wish to end up with a hole in that hand, lad," Kaede said, watching him sternly with her one good eye. "Hanyou lords are a bit out of a solitary Gaes-bound's league."

Kagome stood and planted her fists on her hips. Her eyes flashed in anger as more pieces of the situation clicked; she did not like the picture they formed. No one would say that she, Higurashi Kagome, had survived her first year of law school on the benefit of just her cheerful smile. "If Souta and I are . . . _were_ normal, what about the rest of you?"

"We are what we have always been," Kaede said calmly. "Abilities and lifespan not withstanding, we are your family."

"And you're still our Kagome," her grandfather added, "no matter what that Halfling has done to you."

"And what, exactly, has he done to me?" Kagome asked quietly. "You seem to know better than I do."

Miroku's face darkened, and he took a breath before starting to answer, "He ..."

"From what I understand," their mother interrupted, "Inuyasha saved you. He brought you to Kaede after you were hurt, and he has been extremely kind in allowing us to invade his home while we waited for you to wake up."

"Oh," Kagome said, pulling her feet up into the chair with her, and wrapping her arms around her knees. "So you've had time to get used to everything. How long was I asleep?"

"About a day," Miroku answered. "And we have had time to get used to this, but not for the reason you're suggesting. Inuyasha's not the strangest thing we've ever run across," Miroku noted with a ghost of his usual good-humor. "You see, Kaede-san, Jii-chan, and I are all vampire hunters. Gaes-bound."

Vampire hunters. Gaes-bound? The words echoed through Kagome's mind, and she realized that explained a great many things. It explained her grandfather's fascination with old legends and the wards he'd insisted be festooned around every doorway and window in their home growing up. And it explained the odd tingle that permeated Kaede's shrine. It also explained Miroku's tendency to dash off in the middle of anything if his cell phone rang with a certain tune. Oddly, Kagome always assumed that was a girl or an emergency call to return to the law office he worked for.

Kagome's thoughts were followed swiftly by the renewed realization that she was now a vampire and possibly in a great deal of danger from her own family! Kagome shot out of her chair and scrambled backward only to fetch up against something solid. A clawed hand came up to steady her, and she realized it was Inuyasha. His other hand held a tall, frosted glass, filled with a dark liquid that clung to the sides.

"Calm down," he said softly, maneuvering Kagome back into the chair she'd just left. "You're safe here, and they aren't after you anyway. Gaes-bound don't kill every vampire they come across. Just the ones that cause trouble."

"Or are threats to our entire existence," Miroku agreed. "I wouldn't kill my sister, but I wouldn't hesitate to kill you, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha's ears flattened at the threat and Kagome felt a low growl rumble through her chair. The claws of his free hand flexed sharply against the back of the chair, puncturing the fabric.

"Boys!" Miroku found himself nailed with a firm look along with the reprimand from his mother. "Miroku, I'm sure Inuyasha intended no harm toward Kagome. The creature that attacked her was not his fault. You will not harm him for it and there is no reason for you to be more upset than Kagome is. Inuyasha," Higurashi-san's attention turned to the growling hanyou. "I appreciate the hospitality you've provided us today, but I will not appreciate it if you injure my son."

Inuyasha's growl died and he swallowed uncomfortably. "Understood, Higurashi-san."

"Thank you, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha huffed softly and turned back to Kagome. "Here." He dropped the glass of liquid in her hands. A warm slightly metallic scent drifted from the glass and a gentle heat seeped through the crystal into Kagome's fingers.

"What's this?" Kagome took a sip, and sputtered as her mouth filled with an unmistakable metallic tang. "Blood!?"

Inuyasha snorted. "What did you expect? Saké?" Inuyasha reached down and tipped the glass up a bit, forcing the warm liquid against her lips. "Drink it. If you want more answers, I won't have time to teach you to hunt tonight."

Kagome opened her mouth and swallowed a bit more, trying to ignore what she was drinking and concentrate on how it was affecting her. Surprisingly, she felt better! A sluggishness she hadn't noticed before lifted, leaving her alert, and her senses sharpened greatly. Now, along with the soft crackle of the fire and the rustles of shifting cloth, Kagome could pick out the individual heartbeats of her family and the quiet breathing of Inuyasha. His heart didn't beat, she realized with interest. But speaking required breath, so he still breathed.

"I am not looking forward to this part of being a vampire." Kagome grimaced and took another long swallow.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "You're nosferatu, Kagome. You won't have to drink blood if you don't want to once you've learned how to hunt. Low-level vampires have to drink blood. Nosferatu can feed on life force."

Kagome blinked at him over the rim of her glass and lowered it slowly. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to hunt humans, Inuyasha. And I thought nosferatu _were_ vampires."

"They are." Miroku answered. "All nosferatu are vampires, but not all vampires are nosferatu." He tapped his fingers against the stone mantle thoughtfully and watching Inuyasha for a moment before continuing. "Inuyasha is, I believe, considered a nosferatu lord, so you should be nosferatu."

"Should be?"

Miroku nodded. "Should be, yes, but there's no way to know. We know how vampires in a general sense are created, and the sire determines the strength of the offspring. The Master creates nosferatu lords, nosferatu lords create nosferatu, and nosferatu create vampires. However, I doubt anyone knows exactly what a hanyou would create. Twelve hours ago, I didn't even know Inuyasha, or any halfling like him, existed. They're normally killed before birth."

"Killed?" Kagome's eyes widened and she glanced up to the stony face of Inuyasha before looking back at the three humans. "Why? By whom?"

"By whoever gets close enough to do it," Inuyasha bit out, his claws digging into the back of Kagome's armchair. "Usually the youkai clan leaders, one of the Master's Eldest, or one of the Geas-bound."

"But you're alive?" Kagome twisted in her seat, pulling her legs up over the arm of the chair so she could look up at the pensive hanyou more easily. "Are hanyou . . . I mean aren't there other hanyou?"

"Yeah, there are other hanyou," Inuyasha answered, "but not many. Even though they're all half human – not vampire at all – a lot of them don't survive long. Too many convenient accidents', and they're not usually as powerful as full-bloods. The lucky ones have powerful parents or are Geas-bound. My father is the Lord of the Western Lands." Inuyasha removed his claws from the small punctures he'd created in the chair and shifted so he could rest his chin on his folded arms. "My mother was married to my father as a peace-weaver. The nosferatu lord that changed her thought it would be a great way to damage both races. The bastard didn't know she was pregnant at the time." Inuyasha's face was turned to Kagome, but his vivid gold eyes held a far-off look as he spoke and smile ghosted around his lips. "She survived, which a lot don't, and a lot of people on both sides didn't think my mother was an acceptable mate for a youkai lord after that, but dad never listens to the other lords if he's decided on something. It was a good reason for her to stay out of sight for a few months while my father argued with the other youkai high lords over me. The Emperor got involved, but they let me live with certain . . . stipulations."

"Those stipulations were for everyone's protection, Inuyasha," Kaede pointed out, but not unkindly. "We still do not know exactly what will come of your changing Kagome." Kagome remained quiet as her godmother turned to her, Kaede's gently gruff manner resonating in her words. "As for Inuyasha's mother, I remember the Lady Izayoi and I remember what happened to her.

"Her family had a lineage of hunters spanning back to the beginnings of Japan. Vampire hunting abilities run in families and usually with the eldest child. Had Inuyasha remained half human, he would have inherited her abilities at her death as well as his father's youkai blood and been a most formidable warrior of two races."

"Instead of a despised monster, you mean?" Miroku grumbled, almost too softly to hear. Inuyasha's responsive growl cut off with an undignified squeak as Kagome reached up and yanked on his ear. He glared down at her but she glared back, unfazed before releasing the furry appendage. Inuyasha leaned away from her and flattened his ears against his skull to keep them out of reach.

Kagome shifted and turned to reprimand her older brother. "And you, stop baiting him! I don't care if you do kill vampires in your spare time, Miroku, Inuyasha can't help being hanyou!"

"You might as well get used to it, Kagome," her grandfather counseled. "Whether it was his choice or not does not change what he is."

Kagome's stormy eyes darkened in defiance. A brief look at Inuyasha's face didn't tell her much. Only his glowing eyes betrayed any emotion at all, and that was still unreadable to her. "What sort of stipulations?" she asked suddenly. "Can whatever they are be broken?" At this, Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably and stared into the flames burning in the hearth to avoid all eye contact.

"The hanyou laws mostly concern Inuyasha changing a human into a vampire," Kaede supplied in a calm voice. Kagome turned her attention to her godmother and missed the relieved look Inuyasha sent the old woman. "It is not something he was supposed to do lightly because no one was sure of the consequences. He will be expected to train and provide for you, among other things, until you're able to do so for yourself. I'm sure he will elaborate on that later."

"I called your professors," Miroku added, "and told them you'd caught something from getting caught out in the rain last night. They won't expect you back until you're feeling better."

Kagome leveled an annoyed glare at him. "I'm not sure which bothers me more, Miroku, that you lied to all of my professors, or that you've probably done it before to cover up for yourself."

"What was I supposed to say, Kagome?" Miroku arched a questioning eyebrow at her, not bothering to conceal the grin creeping across his lips. "You died of blood loss last night, but you got better?"

Kagome slumped despondently in her chair. "Maybe I shouldn't go back at all. I can't show up to school with fangs. My life's really over, isn't it?"

"Only if you want that," Inuyasha answered. Kagome looked up in clear shock, and he blinked, puzzled. "Keh. You have a lot to learn. You'll be able to conceal your fangs by next week. Humans get all sorts of things that make them sick for longer than a week, don't they?"

"And I'll be the only vampire – sorry, _nosferatu_ – on campus," Kagome replied peevishly. Miroku snorted audibly and Inuyasha's gold eyes glowed in dry amusement. Even her mother had covered her mouth with a hand, and was coughing suspiciously. Kagome felt like a slow moving stone was sinking through her, and it was labeled 'realization'. "I won't be?"

"Hardly," Miroku chuckled. "We think that about two percent of the _humans_ in any city across the world are completely aware of the creatures around them. That doesn't include the creatures themselves."

"There must be thousands just in Tokyo!" Kagome stated with awe. "Doesn't anyone notice?"

"Yes," Miroku said, "some notice, but not many. There are agreements in place that the magical folk don't draw attention to themselves if they can help it. It's safer that way, and everyone knows it because humanity as a whole doesn't have a very good history in dealing with things that go bump in the night. There's bad blood there even the Geas-bound can't avoid being tainted by. Mostly, though, people don't know what to look for, and just _aren't_ seriously looking for a supernatural explanation to things."

"I was very good as assuming a neighbor with the occasional flash of odd color in her eyes just had foreign blood, or had caught the light just right," her mother noted dryly. "Or that the boy I was dating was just from a family that prized martial arts, not noticing how he would tense when we passed certain places after sunset. Then I married him and he told me it was an enchantment _and_ training. He showed me how to see the details around me."

"Daddy?" Kagome blinked. "He was mixed up in this mess too?" She watched her family members either nod or look away in guilt as the sound of wind outside intensified and the tree branches outside the windows scratched at the glass. "So, dad – and then Miroku – went out fighting monsters every night? Why didn't I ever notice either of you being gone?"

Miroku grinned sheepishly. "Um . . . not every night, and a spell. It made you and Souta fall asleep before any of the messengers that brought Dad's assignments came, and sleep through the night."

"Souta and I were magically drugged, every night, all of our lives?!" Kagome's eyes widened dramatically. "Miroku! What were you thinking?!"

"Not every night!" Miroku defended. "I swear it wasn't every night! You always got enough sleep and never woke up tired, right?"

Kagome hissed at him. "Miroku!"

"It's not his fault," Inuyasha interrupted before she could say more. Kagome blinked and looked up at the hanyou leaning above her. "No human I know tells anyone if they can help it. My mother was an active Geas-bound for years and only her parents knew. She inherited it from her dad. Even after she married a youkai and became nosferatu, most of her family and friends thought she'd married a foreigner and gotten sick for a while."

"Our Elders decided centuries ago that if the secrets were kept from the hunter's own family, then keeping them from the general public would become second nature," Jiichan lectured, watching both Kagome and Inuyasha sternly. "It's a very ancient tradition with a long and noble history!"

"It doesn't seem fair to surround them with this and not tell them," Kagome said, wrinkling her nose and folding her arms across her chest.

"Look at it this way, Kagome," her mother said gently. "had you not. . . . um . . . met Inuyasha, would you have needed to know?"

"Yes, mom, I think this is something I would have wanted to know."

"Well, most of us don't want peasants storming the gates with torches and pitchforks," Inuyasha snorted. He stilled suddenly and his ears twitched. One swiveled backward, to identify whatever faint sound Inuyasha was hearing.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome questioned, trying to catch the sound herself. She didn't hear anything beyond the muted roar of distant cars on a nearby street and the slight creaking of wood from the house. Then she caught the soft whimpers of a scared child.

Inuyasha's ears twitched back to her. "The runt woke up." Inuyasha bent over and scooped up Kagome's half empty glass, his silver hair falling forward to obscure his face. He straightened and dropped the glass back into Kagome's hands. "Finish the rest. Shippou'll come barging in here if I don't go check on him."

Inuyasha crossed the room quickly, slid the shoji door open and left, closing the shoji behind him. "If Inuyasha isn't a kitsune, why does he have Shippou?" Kagome asked curiously, turning to the remaining humans and drinking obediently. Normally, she would have resisted the intermittently overbearing attitude she was coming to expect from Inuyasha. However, she wasn't stupid or masochistic, and the warmed blood he'd handed back to her was soothing her tingling, hyper aware, senses. She even was beginning to think she could get used to it, so long as she ignored what was clinging to the edges of the glass, and focused on the energy that soaked through her.

"Shippou is Inuyasha's ward, of sorts," Kaede supplied in answer. "He acquired the kit some months ago after the boy's father was murdered."

"Shippou wasn't hurt by those things, was he?"

Kaede shook her gray-haired head firmly. "Shippou was greatly upset when you were taken by the spell, but not hurt by any of them. From what little Inuyasha has said I suspect Shippou saw his father taken and used as ingredients in a chaos ritual, and Shippou himself would probably been harvested if Inuyasha had not interfered." She pause, then her wrinkles deepened around her eyes in a smile. "I have known Inuyasha for most of my life and he is not as heartless as he would like others to believe."

Kagome didn't ask for Kaede to expound on what sort of ingredients or harvesting would leave someone dead. She didn't want to know.

"Kaede," Kagome asked carefully, her brow furrowing in thought. "If you've known Inuyasha most of your life, how old is he?"

"Fifty three," Kaede answered. "He was born just before my sister's death passed her hunting abilities on to me."

"Your sister?"

"Kikyou had no children to pass her abilities onto," Kaede said, folding her hands comfortably in her lap. "The calling is not allowed to die and, as a result, was passed to me, her nearest relative. It is the same in your own family. Miroku inherited his calling from your father, but if he was to die before fathering an heir, the calling and abilities would have come to you. Now it will fall to Souta because you are no longer human."

"I am sure to have a child before that happens," Miroku declared.

"Not if you don't start keeping your hands to yourself you won't," Kagome observed. "Seriously, Miroku, most of my friends won't have anything to do with you and your wandering hands. And it sounds like the other girls you hang out with are severely anemic and living impaired." The thought brought a flash of the only vampire she'd ever seen beyond Inuyasha, and suddenly her thoughts latched onto Kaede's mention of Kikyou. Kagome had a sinking feeling that her recurring dream, that was now flashing from her memory and across her thoughts, was intimately connected to the circus her life had just become. "Was . . . was Kikyou killed by a youkai named Sesshoumaru?"

Kaede blinked, clearly startled. "She was. But how could you know that, child?"

Kagome looked around uncertainly. "I . . . I've seen it." Her eyes dropped to her folded hands. "More times than I can count."

"How?" This came from her mother, who was frowning slightly in concern.

"A dream," Kagome said softly. "They started when dad died, but never told any of you because I thought you'd think I'd lost my mind. Kikyou kills a vampire she calls Onigumo'. She said Onigumo created a hanyou when he killed the Inutaisho's wife and she executes him for it. Then she tries to kill . . ." Comprehension dawned in Kagome's eyes, "Inuyasha. There's a baby with puppy ears; it must be Inuyasha!"

"Very likely, for you are describing the final moments of my older sister." Kaede's frown deepened. "But how you are doing this I do not know."

_Well, it's not just a dream_, Kagome thought to herself.

_You know it's not.'_ The voice, as always, came silently. From long practice, Kagome didn't jump or give any outward indication of her silent conversation. Though they usually spoke when she was alone, and usually late at night when Kagome initiated contact, she'd felt his unseen presence often enough during the day. She suspected he showed up whenever he got bored.

_Where have you been?'_ she demanded silently, letting her irritation, but not her relief, show. Fate had played Yahtzee with her life – again – and she wanted something familiar. Weird, but familiar. However, Kagome knew it would just figure that the weirdest aspect of her former life wouldn't carry over to the circus that included a nosferatu youkai lord, nosferatu, youkai, and not quite human vampire hunters.

_You've been unconscious!'_ he defended hotly._Besides, you usually tell me not to talk to you when you're busy.' _She conceded to him silently and answered the question Kaede asked her.

"No, Kaede, I'm really sure I hadn't met Inuyasha before waking up this morning. Nosferatu hanyou even being a possibility never crossed my mind before now."

"Strange, Kagome, this is most strange," Kaede muttered, pulling a worn rosary from her robes and threading the beads through her fingers. "If you were a vampire hunter yourself and trained in producing visions such as those you have described, I would understand. This we cannot attribute this entirely to Inuyasha's influence, for you are clearly seeing from Kikyou's eyes." The rosary beads disappeared back into Kaede's white kimono and the old miko climbed to her feet. "I will look into this."

Kagome blinked as the other three members of her family followed Kaede and rose to their feet. "You're leaving?"

"You need to rest and let your body finish adapting to the change," her mother said, hugging Kagome close. "And Inuyasha has already put up with us for hours."

"I also have a hearing in the morning," Miroku winced after he pulled his sleeve up enough to check his watch. "For which I'm not going to be awake without lots of caffeine. Enjoy your day off, Kagome."

Kagome reached up and cuffed her brother on the back of the head. "A freaky witch with white hair and zombie things decided to sacrifice me to her dark gods, Miroku; this isn't an ideal vacation. I'll email my professors, assuming Inuyasha has a computer, but I'm not getting any further behind because of dental problems." She smiled widely at him, making sure her new fangs were in plain view.

"I'll bring your books and a few other things tomorrow afternoon," Miroku assured her, rubbing the back of his skull and putting on his shoes before stepping out into the night. Kagome followed her family back out into to the entryway she'd entered from and to the outer doors of Inuyasha's house.

Kagome kissed her mother, hugged her godmother and grandfather and stood at the door, waiting until her family retrieved their shoes and left, walking down the street and out of sight.

Besides the dictates of politeness, this gave her a chance to see her new surroundings. Evening had faded into sunset, but the street lamps and outer lights of the stately homes along the tree lined street brightened to cast enough light for Kagome's improved eyes to make out the lush, manicured gardens surrounding them.

Kagome shut the heavy door with a small sigh and turned back to reenter the house proper. She chanced to look down and noticed three pairs of shoes still waiting in the entry way. One large, sturdy pair had to be Inuyasha's and they dwarfed the children's tennis shoes that sat alongside them. The third pair surprised Kagome. They were hers. Not the comfortable walking shoes that she'd worn when she left Kaede's shrine, but a favorite pair of sandals from her closet!

That meant that either her mother or godmother had thought to pack her a bag of things, or Inuyasha knew where her apartment was. Seeing no reason for Inuyasha to either know or care where she lived previously, Kagome silently thanked her mother and made her way to the double staircases curving around the outer edges of the room.

Kagome put her foot on the first stair, but hesitated for a moment and looked up. Inuyasha had forced her to jump from the top and they'd landed without injury. Now, from the bottom, Kagome felt a tendril of awe slip through her. It was a very tall staircase.

Her other foot joined the first and she climbed several steps before stopping again. Kagome looked down at the short distance and a wondered idly if she could jump up as easily as she had jumped down. Kagome blinked, shook herself and continued up the staircase. She obviously needed sleep, or whatever it was that vampires did to rest.

As Kagome reached the top floor, Inuyasha stepped out of a room near the end of the corridor and allowed it to swing shut behind him.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called softly, causing the hanyou's ears to twitch in response. He looked up and silently waited for her to join him. Kagome saw an unreadable emotion in Inuyasha's golden eyes as he watched her approach. Kagome felt herself blush for no reason and pulled at the folds of her yukata. She could imagine how she must look.

She refocused on the door behind him to avoid his gaze. "Is that Shippou's room?" Seeing his surprised look, Kagome smiled shyly. "Kaede told me about him."

Inuyasha nodded, but his eyes looked wary. "He fell asleep just before you came up. You should get some rest too." He stepped past her and opened a door, revealing the room she'd awoken in some time before.

Kagome blinked in confusion. She had assumed that was Inuyasha's room and she told him as much. Inuyasha chuckled softly.

"It is."

"Then why . . ."

"Keh! I can sleep in a guestroom well enough!" he huffed, folding his hands into his wide sleeves and half turning away from her. "My room's better warded against things, and you can't protect yourself."

"Oh." Kagome stepped past Inuyasha and into the room. From what she had been told, Inuyasha probably had reason for his paranoia, but, Kagome decided, she didn't understand him. His moods changed without warning and he seemed bent on making her comfortable and protected. Even though, she realized, she had no idea where she actually was.

Before Inuyasha moved away, Kagome turned and stepped out of the room. "Where are we?" She asked with nothing more than curiosity showing in her voice and manner. "Are we still in Tokyo?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Daikanyama."

"In with the foreigners," Kagome noted, wide-eyed. She'd walked through these streets before, imagining what it would be like to live in one of the stately houses surrounded by manicured gardens.

"This part of Tokyo is mostly normal humans and, yeah, a lot of foreigners who all see me as a recluse, and are too damn polite to bother me." Inuyasha smirked. "I live here because vampires don't hunt this area as a rule; dead rich foreigners get noticed by the police and the government. We _don't_ want to get noticed by the vampires," Inuyasha told her.

"Naraku would kill you, wouldn't he?" she asked quietly. Inuyasha's ears flattened into his hair and his eyes darkened.

"He'd kill you and Shippou too," Inuyasha said as he moved away, "and probably both our families for emphasis." He strode into another doorway just down from the one she stood in and closing the door with a soft click. She stared at the closed door a moment longer before mentally shaking herself and retreating into the bedroom.

Kagome looked around the room for the second time in her life. The sunken nest of pillows still sat in the center of the room, but a pile of soft looking blankets now lay neatly folded on the closest edge. The weapons on Inuyasha's walls glinted softly in the fading light of the setting sun.

Inuyasha hadn't given her time to change out of the silk yukata she had awoken in. So Kagome stifled a yawn and let herself sink to her knees in the cushions before she pulled one of the waiting blankets to her and crawled a bit further in. Remembering how difficult it was to wade through the soft nest, however, she made sure to stick close to a solid edge.

Once she had successfully curled herself under her blanket and burrowed into the soft bedding, exhaustion swamped her and tears finally fell. Her old life was gone, she realized; shattered by her change and the truth of the different world that lurked around her. Alone, in the strange bedding of a creature she barely knew, and tired from the shocks and arguments of the day, Kagome let herself cry into the pillows and wiped at her eyes with a corner of her blanket.

If ever she needed the comfort and presence of her unseen friend, she decided, it was then. Part of her noted the strangeness of the situation: her possibly-not-imaginary friend had become the most normal aspect of her topsy-turvy existence. Taking strange comfort in that part of her thoughts, Kagome closed her eyes and reached out with her mind.

_Are _you_ there?'_

_I'm always here,' _he answered, wrapping her into the strength of his presence.

_Do you know what's happened?'_

A mental sigh echoed across their connection. _Yes. And I'm sorry.'_

'_This isn't your fault,'_ she said, curling tighter around a long pillow with silken cords wound around it. _'It's not even Inuyasha's fault. He' as trapped in all this as I am,'_ she said. _But I'm scared. Nothing seems real. I'm not even sure if _you're _real.'_

A long moment of silence answered her before the soft click of a latch being lifted and the scrape of metal on wood sounded behind her. "I'm real."

* * *

**Kat's Notes: **This was mostly just editing, I've no idea why it took so long. Any mistakes are mine alone, since my favorite beta is juggling so many things right now, I didn't want to throw one more ball at her. Especially one that is massively long … for me, anyway. And for everyone that reviewed last chapter, thank you so much! And I am slowly working through answering them all. I get distracted by shiny objects and … yeah. Thanks for all your patience! 


	7. The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 7 - Dark Side of the Moon

_Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence._

H. L. Mencken

Inuyasha stepped silently through the open window, silently berating himself for saying anything. She gasped, stiffened visibly at his voice, and pushed herself up on her arms, moving to turn towards him. Suddenly, none of this seemed like a good idea at all.

_If she turns and sees you,_ his mind pointed out, _you're screwed._ "Wait!" he ordered, keeping his voice to a harsh whisper so she (hopefully) couldn't recognize him. "Don't move. Don't turn around."

Kagome stilled, but fidgeted, gripping the edges of one of the pillows surrounding her. "What? Why not?"

"Not yet," he temporized. "_Please_, don't turn around. I'm … um … taking a big enough risk just being here?" He was tired; exhausted, actually. That was the only explanation for his lapse of sanity in coming to comfort her when every ounce of his common sense was telling him that he should put her to sleep with a touch of magic and go dig the spare futon out in the guest room and get some rest himself.

"A risk?" Kagome settled back down, considering his hastily whispered words for a moment before relaxing back into the cushions. He watched her warily, listening to the silence of the room, and that quiet was the only reason he caught her next whisper. "You're not human, are you?"

"No, I'm not," Inuyasha admitted, settling at the edge of the nest closest to the window and making sure he was directly behind her. Kagome would have to move to see him, giving him time to escape through the window first. Escape and avoidance were sounding like excellent fallback plans to him.

"You're … You don't have a heartbeat. You're one of them, aren't you?"

"One of them?" A wry chuckle answered her. "A vampire? Yes," he admitted, looking down at the blunt nails of his hands; sharper and harder than a human's, but lacking the demon's edge.

Kagome's hands fisted involuntarily, her nails piercing the fabric of the pillow she was mangling with unexpected strength. Inuyasha saw her tense, felt fear skitter across her mind and heard her breathing shorten. He reached out, but stopped himself just short of touching her. He wanted to comfort her, but he was not at all sure how she would react. "You've never been afraid of me before."

"I'm not afraid of you," Kagome said honestly, releasing the pillow, trailing a few feathers dangling at the end of her hands, and dropping forward so she could prop her chin in her palms. "I'm not afraid, but this is all new. And bizarre. And I'm not sure how much you already know and how much I can, or should, tell you."

A long silence answered her and Kagome shifted, clearly wanting to check and see if he had left as abruptly as he'd arrived. _Say something,_ his mind hissed. "You're worried about something," he finally managed. "If it's any comfort, I already know about the hanyou and the kitsune."

"Then you know he won't like you being here," Kagome said softly. "But if you put them in danger … I'll find a way to get them out of it."

"He's the one who did this to you." He waved a hand to encompass her and the room even though he knew she couldn't see him. "Why would you care?" He dropped his eyes and brushed his fingers against the surface of a velvet pillow. "He shouldn't have. You deserved a choice. Only monsters change the unwilling."

"He saved my life."

Inuyasha blinked. He knew her well enough to know he shouldn't be surprised, but hearing her defend the very creature that had torn her old life to unrecognizable shreds (granted, that creature was him) still amazed him. "He _took_ your life – your mortal one – away from you! But you're still breathing, sort of, so _that's_ enough for you to defend him?"

"It's enough that I won't let him be killed just for existing!" Kagome snapped, her shoulders hunched in annoyance. She sighed and sank further forward into the cushions before continuing. "Those _things_ had me, and that witch was doing something, and I could feel it! Whatever it was couldn't have been good. Somehow, I think I'd have been _lucky_ to be properly dead after she'd finished with me. Now I'm alive ... sort of ... and even if it had been _you_ there, I wouldn't be any better off, would I? You're one of them too!"

Inuyasha deflated with a silent huff of breath. Guilt gnawed at him. Rationally, he knew Kagome would have died, and worse probably have become a ghoul, if he hadn't changed her. Her earlier injuries had taken too much blood for her to survive more than a few minutes, even apart from whatever the witch's ritual was doing to her. Her family loved her, vampire or not, and he himself . . . cared for her. He'd been friend and unseen companion for better than a year and he didn't want to lose the first (and almost only) friend he'd ever had. However, even knowing that didn't completely soothe his conscience.

"I can't help wondering if this is somehow my fault," he said, pushing himself to his feet with a defeated sigh. "Maybe I shouldn't have reached back to you that night. I really didn't mean to drag you into all of this. I'm sorry, Kagome."

"You know my name," Kagome said, her voice soft and filled with surprised wonder. Inuyasha flinched, knowing full well that his silence confirmed the comment, but wondering where she was going with it. "But I don't know yours."

Inuyasha hesitated then shook his head in complete resignation. "Yes, you do. My name is Inuyasha."

Kagome's silent shock didn't last long enough for him to escape. She turned with her eyes wide and came face to foot with Inuyasha. Her eyes scanned upward, taking in the heavy cloth of his old-fashioned kimono, loose sable-dark hair, and finally the violet eyes set in a fine-boned face. Kagome found her feet an instant later, and jumped back, placing the nest of cushions between them. "Why do you look like _that_?!" she demanded.

Inuyasha slapped a hand over his eyes and dropped his head back. "Stupid _moon_!" he snarled. Kagome wondered at his frustrated reaction, but took the distraction as an opportunity to bolt for the door. "Look, Kago… Hey, come back here!" He bounded forward and caught her just as she threw the door open. Kagome squeaked as a restraining arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her back against a hard chest while his other hand covered her mouth. "Damn it, Kagome, would you calm down and listen to me?"

"Do you randomly put on a disguise to try and look more human, Inuyasha?" Kagome snarled, struggling against his restraint. "Or is the white-haired pretty-boy look the disguise?" He swore as her fangs sank deeply into his hand and he released her long enough to grab her shoulders and spin her around to face him. Sluggish blood from his wounded hand oozed down her left arm.

"Kagome!" The vampire shook her lightly, and reined in his temper with supreme effort. Yelling at her was just going to prolong this whole fiasco and most of him just wanted her to calm down and relax so they could both get some sleep. "Look, _neither one_'s a disguise. It's the moon."

"Aren't you two ever going to sleep?" A grouchy, sleepy-eyed, tousle-haired Shippou demanded, padding into view and dragging a stuffed rabbit along by a paw. "Or at least be quiet and stay in one room! Geez, Inuyasha, she's only been here a day!"

"Go back to bed, Shippou!" Inuyasha ordered, releasing Kagome and pointing down the hall towards the partly-open door of the kit's room. Kagome stayed frozen where he'd left her, blinking down at the cranky and obviously still-sleepy child.

"I was in bed!" Shippou protested, folding his arms stubbornly. His stubborn pose was slightly marred by the stuffed bunny's paw getting tangled in his arms. "You two got noisy!"

Kagome stared, shifting from one to the other in amazement and finally settling on the taller of the two. "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha folded his arms and deflated slightly with a sigh. "Yeah?"

Kagome reached out and picked up a lock of his black hair, letting it fall through her fingers before speaking. He yelped as her fingers tangled themselves in his hair and gave a firm yank.

"Okay, that's not a wig.

"You figured _this_ was the wig?" Inuyasha glared and pulled his hair out of her hands. "I look almost normal right now!"

"Well, I'm not sure what's real right now!" she defended. "So what did you mean 'it's the moon?' And I _swear_ if you thought it was funny to make all of this even weirder, I'm going to tie you out in the street and wait for the sun to come out," she warned.

Inuyasha stared at her oddly for a moment before laughing under his breath. "That … wouldn't work. Sorry." He leaned down to scoop Shippou up and start down the hall with him. "It's part of being hanyou," he said over his shoulder before disappearing into Shippou's room. Kagome heard fabric rustling and a firm, "_Sleep_, runt," before Inuyasha reappeared at the door, closing it firmly behind him. "Let's go outside," he suggested, walking back down the hall and past her towards the front stairs.

'Outside' turned out to be a secluded garden, completely surrounded by high walls, and reached by following an inconspicuous hallway that began under the right-hand staircase. Inuyasha slid open the outer door and revealed a low porch with a traditionally-kept garden beyond it. A concealed switch on the outer wall of the house awakened path lights and small lanterns, illuminating the immediate world in faerie-like light.

The dim and scattered lights kept plenty of concealing shadows and an atmosphere of quiet around them as they walked further away from the house.

Neither spoke, letting the chirrup of crickets and the lazy splashes of koi in the decorative ponds around them attempt to fill the hollow silence. Kagome finally chose a bench and dropped onto it. Inuyasha followed her tentatively, and waited until she motioned for him to sit before taking the seat next to her.

"How long, Inuyasha?" she asked, not looking at him and rubbing the ivory petals of a night-blooming flower between her fingers. "We've been contacting each other for almost a year now. How long have you known who I was? Better yet, did you crash the shrine festival so you could stalk me?"

He answered with a roll of his eyes. "You are getting a little full of yourself and jumping to conclusions. Maybe I should have been, seeing as you _died_ the moment I took my eyes off of you! But hell if I know when you or the brat are going to run into something with an attitude!"

Kagome's eyes sharpened. "I'm so sorry I was a pathetic human who needed saving and never drew the logical conclusion in all this: the _voice in my head_ isn't there because I study too much, my lack of social life, or the beginning of schizophrenic insanity; it's a psychic connection with a demonic creature who's over half a century old!"

"That's not what I meant!" Inuyasha protested in annoyance, dropping his hands from his sleeves and leaning forward.

"That's what it sounded like!" Kagome growled back, feeling the beginnings of an odd energy uncoiling inside her. Neither noticed as the normal sounds of a quiet night sputtered to a startled stop as their voices rose.

Inuyasha growled and pushed himself to his feet. "How would you know what I meant?!"

Kagome ignored his posturing and hissed defiantly, "I know _you_, idiot!"

"Then trust me!"

"I do trust you!" She threw up her hands in irritated defeat. "I just wish you had told me before now. Were you planning to? At all?"

"Yes!" He shouted, then stopped and took a deep breath and folded his arms, tucking his hands into the wide sleeves of his yukata. The emotional storm between them settled slightly and Inuyasha sat back down, but refused to look directly at her. "In a few months," he admitted with a touch of embarrassment.

"A few months?" Kagome considered this for a few moments, her brow crinkling in thought. "So you were planning to tell me … after that, would you have still changed me?"

Inuyasha shrugged helplessly. "Eventually. Maybe. If you wanted it, anyway, but not without your permission." He smiled slightly, if a touch bitterly, and leaned back. "I couldn't exactly ask your permission yesterday."

Kagome made a noncommittal sound and pulled her feet up onto the bench so she could wrap her arms around them and rest her chin on her knees. "So what happened to you?"

Inuyasha looked at her, startled, and she hid her smile in her knees. "You look different than you did earlier. All you need is a cape and tuxedo and you'd look just like a vampire from a film."

Inuyasha wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I do not!" His expression added insult when Kagome giggled and he sighed in defeat. "I was at the festival because I had an invitation from Kaede, – ask her, if you don't believe me – Shippou wanted to, and the festival was open to the public."

"Even to the supernatural public?" Kagome deadpanned, reining in her laughter at his expense. He was answering her questions, if disjointedly, and she was grateful for it.

Inuyasha gritted his teeth, and she caught the flash of an elongated incisor in the grimace. "I mean open to the _public_," he said. "That includes all the humans, your godmother, grandfather, and brother's crowd, _and_ the ones like Shippou and me who aren't inhuman because of some crazy miko's grudge spell. There are a lot of _them_ that are a hell of a lot better at fitting in than I am."

"You seem to be doing okay looking human tonight," Kagome pointed out, looking meaningfully at his dark hair.

"That's because _tonight_ I'm a vampire," Inuyasha explained, sounding a bit weary. "I never look human, and I go back to hanyou at dawn, but vampire's as close as I get. I look like this because it's the new moon and my father's youkai." He pointed skyward at the blanket of stars shining above them, washed out by the city lights, but not the moon. "You probably know that werewolves transform on full moons, it's one of the few things humans get mostly right. I'm not a wolf, but my clan is still linked to the moon."

Kagome stared thoughtfully at the flower still trapped in her hands and nodded. "It's like a werewolf, but backwards. So you're a vampire tonight, and that's why you said it's the moon's fault. On a full moon, you're a youkai?" He nodded silently and Kagome smiled slightly. Somehow, she was glad the explanation was this simple, and oddly familiar.

"All hanyou lose their demon blood at certain times and become human," Inuyasha told her. "And this is another one of those things you can't tell anyone. It's the best evidence there is of _what_ I am."

"It's a secret, along with your very existence," she noted wryly. He opened his mouth to say something, but she waved a hand, cutting him off. "I understand. It's better if no one knows you exist."

Inuyasha nodded and the pair lapsed into a semi-comfortable silence broken only by the occasional whisper of shifting fabric from their clothes. The chirping symphony of insects resumed, filling the quiet again, and a gentle night wind caught the suspended lanterns and tree boughs, making the light flicker and dance in unusual patterns.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome said after a long moment. Inuyasha looked up as Kagome dropped her feet to the ground and leaned closer to him. He swallowed uncomfortably at the dangerous glint in her eyes as she reached out, wrapping both her hands in his dark hair and pulling his face closer until all he could see and smell was her. "If there is anything, ANYTHING else I should know – any surprises at all – you had better tell me right now." Her voice remained mild, but the threat sounded clear. Inuyasha internally winced at the "else" he still hadn't told her about.

He wasn't sure how to tell her and ensure the survival of all his extremities. She had already dealt with too much for one day in his opinion. Her family already knew and was, if not happy about the situation at least understanding of it. But that had taken several hours of clarification on his part and none of them were in quite the same position Kagome was. Another explanation, and an inevitable explosion, wasn't something he intended to put either of them through right then.

"There . . ." Inuyasha cleared his throat. "There is something else. The old hag started telling you about the laws the youkai put in place for me, right?" At Kagome's confirming nod he continued. "There's more you need to know about those, but not tonight. Ouch! Wench, let go of my hair!"

"What is the other thing, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha grabbed her hands and stopped her from pulling on him. "I'll tell you. But not tonight," he said, carefully extricating her hands from his hair and pulling his hair back, tucking the loose strands behind his ears.

"Inuyasha . . ."

"_Not_ tonight, Kagome." Inuyasha crossed his arms across his chest. "Shit, you haven't had enough surprises for one day? Let it lie for now. I'll teach you to hunt tomorrow. After that you can ask me, and I'll tell you the entire damn mess."

She relented, if a bit sulkily, and retreated to her end of the bench. "Why not tonight?"

Inuyasha rubbed at his sore scalp as he answered, "Because you're not going to like it and I'm tired. Look, you can stay out here for a while, or you can go back in the house. Can we just leave the rest of the interrogation for tomorrow? You and Shippou were the only ones that got any sleep last night."

Kagome hesitated for a moment then nodded cautiously. "I ... I'll stay out here. I'm not tired yet."

Inuyasha acknowledged her decision and walked back into the house, closing the sliding door behind him. Kagome pulled her knees back against her chest and looked around again. Trimmed grass, water, and trees with a few decorative stones and a screening hedge of bamboo surrounded her, creating a spot of cultured tranquility even with the muffled invasion of the city sounds and lights. A low porch ran along the back of the house with doors opening on the hallway and what Kagome guessed was the kitchen.

The smallish house and beautiful garden weren't what she expected, because they were _normal_. She wondered at that. Weren't vampires supposed to live in grand houses or castles? Preferably set on hills and swathed in dark clouds with wolves baying in the distance and bats fluttering through the halls. She certainly never imagined youkai living in houses at all – maybe in dried wells, rivers, trees or abandoned shrines.

The shrine Kagome had grown up in was larger and more unusual that Inuyasha's home. As a child, she had been convinced that demons lurked in the shadows of the abandoned well house they had at the family shrine. Souta made regular forays into it to look for them when he thought no one was watching.

Souta … Kagome flinched at the thought of her younger brother. He was probably why her family had left her in Inuyasha's care to begin with. Even if vampirism didn't seem to bother Mama – and Jiichan and Miroku were grudgingly dealing with it – Kagome's new fangs would, at best, frighten Souta or, worse, intrigue him. Dealing with her younger brother's requests to touch and questions about when he was going to grow fangs, and could she fly yet because vampires in movies could fly and pick up houses, or maybe she could turn into a swarm of bats for him ... Kagome winced. Yes, it was better to be here, even if it meant dealing with Inuyasha and his secrets.

She stood and looked up at the moonless sky, enjoying a moment of stillness amidst the chaos she had been flung into until a muffled scratching drew her attention to a dimly-lit room on the top floor. A panel of the animal-printed curtains hung out far enough to catch the breeze, but she couldn't see anyone near the window or on the vine trellis below it.

Frowning slightly, Kagome stood and moved towards the trellis. From the curtains, she figured that window led into Shippou's room. However, she had seen Inuyasha enter the house and, if he had wanted to check on Shippou, he would just open the door inside.

A scuffling thud sounded at the base of the trellis and Shippou stumbled out from behind it, with his stuffed bunny spilling out of his arms. Kagome stopped and smiled at the sight. It looked like his bunny had caught on a loose stem and sent both bunny and boy tumbling into the open.

"Can't sleep either?" she asked with a gentle smile. Shippou picked himself up and nodded, reaching down to scoop up his stuffed companion. Kagome could see tiny white 'fangs' sewn messily on the bunny's mouth. One of them was barely clinging by a frayed thread.

"I wanted a snack," Shippou said, pointing a tiny claw towards the door Kagome had noticed earlier. "But if I go past Inuyasha's room, he'll wake up."

"So you climbed out the window?"

Shippou swished his fluffy tail and puffed up a bit. Kagome hid an amused smile. "I do it all the time. I can even get Bunnicula down with me too."

"Bunnicula?" Kagome raised an eyebrow in curiosity. She recognized the name from a set of books Souta owned.

Shippou lifted his bunny up a bit higher. "This is Bunnicula. He's a vampire too."

Kagome reached out to pet the soft faux-fur of the stuffed bunny. "And does he drink blood like I had to earlier? Or do you just hide the vegetables?"

Shippou rolled his green eyes at her and tucked Bunnicula close again. "He's a stuffed rabbit, Kagome. I have stuffed vegetables for him." The fox kit turned away from her and scrambled up to the low porch. "Do you want a snack too? I hid some Pocky from Inuyasha yesterday. And your mom made onigiri for everyone earlier."

Kagome shrugged and followed the boy. "Can I eat normal food still?"

"Inuyasha does," Shippou shrugged. "That's why I had to hide the Pocky. But there's always a few liters of blood in the refrigerator if you want that."

"Onigiri!" Kagome said quickly. She wrinkled her nose at the idea of more blood. It hadn't tasted horrible, it had even tasted _good_ in a strange way, but the _idea_ of it was going to take a lot of getting used to. For now, she would forget about tomorrow's promised hunt, blood in the refrigerator, and the fangs resting on her bottom lip in favor of leftover onigiri and some tea pillaged from Inuyasha's cupboard.

* * *

**Kat's Notes:** No cliffhanger and I didn't kill anyone! Aren't you proud of me? It's a first for this story. As a note, I don't own Bunnicula just like I don't own Inuyasha. I'm borrowing him for my own twisted purposes. However, I honor James Howe forever for creating the little vampire bunny!

And you can now keel right over because I updated this story. The thing about editing is that it's boring. There's nothing to be discovered but mistakes that need smoothing over, things that need tweaking, and places I need to expand … and I've been procrastinating. But it's a welcome change to get back into this story when I'm burning out on my other ones. I'm going to do my best to balance things better from here on out so you see actual updates more than once every six months.

I'm also helping a friend whip a vampire novel _she _just finished writing into shape, and that take a surprising amount of time. Ah well, things will work out. They always do.

**Onigiri **(since I know someone's going to ask): A quick, easy, Japanese food. It's rice pressed into a ball with a bit of water and salt involved. That's just the base, though. You can add spices to the rice, or add stuffing and/or wrap it in a piece of nori (seasoned and toasted seaweed), scrambled eggs, or other wrapping.

**Pocky** (this they actually sell in places other than Japan): A thin cookie stick dipped in chocolate, strawberry, white chocolate or something more elaborate. Very much with the good and the yum.


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

**Chapter 8 - **

_Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;_

_but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,_

_To speak dishonorably is pardonable._

.: Sophocles :.

Late morning sunlight filtered through the open windows, brightening the otherwise neutral kitchen. Inuyasha had disappeared early that morning, leaving his two house-mates to their own devices. Kagome looked up from the stove when she heard the front door open and the scuffling of shoes being removed as someone entered the house. Shippou paused, mid-crayon selection, and perked up as well from his perch atop a stool beside the counter. A muffled thud of large things hitting the floor, followed by grumbling that may or may not have been printable, confirmed it was the missing hanyou. Kagome turned down the stove, and moved away from it towards the kitchen door, abandoning the food she was cooking to Shippou's care for a bit. She pushed through the kitchen door, and padded down the short hall, her house scuffs making little noise on the wood floor. "Inuyasha?"

The figure standing just past the entryway reached up and pulled off the dark wig that was threatening to fall off his head anyway. A contained tail of white hair tumbled down from its hiding place, revealing Inuyasha's white ears, which perked up and swiveled towards Kagome's voice. He looked up from the chaotic collection of bags and cases scattered before him and waved at the mess. "Brought some of your things over," he said, while he reached up with a clawed hand and scrubbed at his eyes, carefully avoiding nicking himself with his own claws. "Stupid contacts."

"You wear contacts? I never imagined a vampire or a youkai would need them..."

"Keh. I don't. At least, not in the way you're thinking." Inuyasha pulled a plastic contact case from a pocket of his trousers and set it on top of a convenient suitcase. "My eyes are fine. But when I have to deal with humans, I wear contacts. A pair of glasses wouldn't be quite enough." He carefully scraped the colored lens off one eye, changing it from brown to gold. The other followed quickly, and Inuyasha pocketed the contact case as he blinking to clear his vision. "What?"

Kagome shook her head, and wiped her hands on the apron tied around her waist. "I just ... colored contacts and a wig are more _normal_ than I was expecting. I guess you're not a shape shifter, huh?"

Inuyasha tugged the tie out of his hair and ran his hand through to marginally untangle it. "All vampires are, and so are a lot of youkai. I have two other forms, but I can't change into anything that would help me blend in public. The real shape-shifter around here would be Shippou, but the runt's not old enough to be good at it. He ends up looking like a stuffed toy most of the 

time."

Kagome privately wondered just how much weirder her life was going to get now. He _had_ said all vampires. "Are you going to show me how to shape shift?"

Inuyasha snorted. "Eventually. It takes decades to learn a new form, Kagome. And we have to see how you handle drinking blood before you attempt reorganizing your molecules."

Kagome stilled and looked a bit pale as Inuyasha gathered up several of the bags out of the pile to haul up the stairs and into the spare bedroom he had slept in the night before.

Inuyasha juggled his burden enough to free up one hand and groped blindly before catching the door with a claw and sliding it partly open. He nudged the door the rest of the way open with his foot and entered the sparsely-decorated guestroom.

No weapons decorated these walls, and a neatly folded futon was stored in an unobtrusive cabinet. A pair of decorative screens, a carved writing desk, and several cubbies built into the walls completed the furnishings. Inuyasha dropped the bags he carried in one corner and went back down for more.

Within a few trips, Inuyasha dropped the last of Kagome's things in her new room, waiting for her to come up and unpack them. Inuyasha gave the room a final once over, before leaving and crossing the hall to enter his own room.

The night before, he had told Kagome that the guest room wasn't protected enough. Now he had time to start fixing that. Ignoring the highly-polished weapons glittering dangerously on the walls of his bedroom, Inuyasha went to a chest sitting against the far wall. He lifted the lid and rummaged around for several moments before coming up with a battered notebook. He flipped through the pages, shook his head, and tossed the book back into the chest while reaching in with his other hand to pull out a different one. After a brief moment of searching the pages, Inuyasha made a small noise of triumph and closed the pages around his finger to mark the page.

With the notebook in hand, he returned to Kagome's room and set a considering eye on the doors and window frames. Protection wards were best cast on the room's entrance. Typically, that meant the symbol he used to bind the ward to the room should be carved into the wood of the doorframe. But, he used the bedroom windows to come and go almost as much as he used the doors. With a shrug, Inuyasha opened the notebook, and carefully used one claw to carve a copy of the arcane symbol drawn on the page into the wood of both the windowsill and the doorway.

He double-checked his work against the notes on the page before closing the notebook and covering the first symbol with his right hand. Inuyasha pushed a bit of the same power he used to attack with Tessaiga into the carved wood then repeated the process with the second symbol, fully activating the new barrier around the room. According to his notes, the barrier spell 

contained in the symbols would activate if it detected hostile intent against the occupant of the room. He was still considered master of the house, but since all the personal items in the room belonged to Kagome, she would be considered the occupant of the room.

Satisfied, Inuyasha made a mental note to see about adding a more permanent barrier later as he returned his notebook to his room. Then he headed back downstairs, following the warm scents of cooking food, and the light chatter of Shippou and Kagome drifting from the kitchen.

&

Inuyasha entered the kitchen, joining Kagome at the stove as she set several full dishes aside to be carried to the table. "I put your stuff in the guest room," he reported while scooping up the bowls and turning to carry them to the table. "You'll probably be more comfortable in there now."

Kagome blinked at the vanished dishes, and softened into a happily surprised smile as she realized where they had gone. She finished up the few left and picked them up before following Inuyasha. "Thank you. When I cook breakfast at home, Miroku and Souta usually just leave me to my own devices about getting everything to the table."

Inuyasha ducked his head slightly, looking uncomfortable, and vanished into the next room ahead of her. Shippou already sat comfortably on a pillow at the low table, munching on a pocky stick and waiting patiently for Inuyasha and Kagome to arrive with the rest of breakfast.

"He's just used to doing the cooking and carrying in everything anyway," Shippou chimed in, earning a flustered glare from Inuyasha.

"Only because 'Cooking with Shippou' turns into 'Firefighting with the Runt' and you complained for daysthe last time I threw you in the koi pond to put out that ball of fluff you call a tail."

Kagome's giggling interrupted the argument and drew puzzled looks from Inuyasha and Shippou. "Sorry," she laughed, "You just sound so much like Miroku and Souta."

"I am nothing like that pervert!" Inuyasha objected, settling back and folding his arms.

"Who's Souta?" Shippou asked.

Kagome shook her head wryly and sipped her tea before answering. "Of course, you're not, Inuyasha, and Souta's my little brother. He would probably find all of this completely awesome."

Inuyasha snorted. "Your father must have been an interesting man, Kagome, because your 

mother seems normal enough."

Kagome set her cup down and poked idly at her food. "At this point I'd be more surprised if she was human and not a tennyo or something. I can't wait to ask her how she really wound up involved with dad, because somehow I don't think it was as boring as they've always said it was."

"The Geas is on your dad's side," Inuyasha offered, "And your mother _is_ human – I could tell if she wasn't – so maybe their courtship wasn't as interesting as their married life ended up being. Some Geasbound tell their family everything and some don't, it just depends on the traditions in the family. Your family leaves the human family completely out of it, which means your mom found out on her own somehow … or your father told her."

Kagome stared at Inuyasha oddly, setting her tea aside and steepling her hands in front of her. "You know an awful lot about my family, Inuyasha. Do I want to know how?"

"My mother was Geasbound," Inuyasha pointed out, poking at his breakfast idly. "I would be too if she'd stayed human. I'm not, but that never stopped her from telling me about it. I know the Geasbound from her just like I know about the youkai from my father. The two aren't really that different." Inuyasha rose abruptly and gathered his breakfast dishes up. "You two finish eating. I have work to do before we go anywhere tonight."

Kagome stared at the door Inuyasha had disappeared through for a long moment, looking puzzled. "What was that all about? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"

"Eh, he's always moody," Shippou told her. "He's probably just working on something; just like he said."

"Work?" Kagome asked, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. "Inuyasha …" she stopped herself and shook her head in mild disbelief. "Sorry, Shippou, I just never thought a supernatural creature like Inuyasha would need a day job."

Shippou shrugged and turned his attention back to his food. "Not all of us can live off energy and blood."

&

Inuyasha draped himself sideways over his chair, paging through a thick tome on necromantic rituals that lay open against his knees when the door of his study opened enough to let Shippou pad into the room with vampire bunny in tow. The kit went straight to a low shelf and pulled a book and a box of brightly colored odds and ends off the shelf. Shippou often came in and played quietly, or practiced casting illusions on his toys while Inuyasha worked. Above them, Inuyasha could hear Kagome shuffling things around in her room and talking to herself.

Abruptly, Inuyasha stopped reading, slapped a hand against his throat and looked down in 

resigned annoyance. "What are you doing here?"

"Inuyasha-sama!" a tiny voice piped from inside Inuyasha's palm. "I am glad I found you so easily!"

"Yeah, imagine that. You found me in my house." Inuyasha flicked the flattened parasite off his hand and onto the desk. "Seeing as I don't leave all that often, Myouga, did you need something, or were you just stopping for a quick snack?"

"For far more than a snack, my lord! … though your blood is as excellent as your father's if not as warm …" the officious little parasite pushed himself back to his feet and brushed off his clothes before sketching a short bow. "I was sent with a message for you and your new br... ack!"

Inuyasha's hand slapped down again, flattening Myouga before he could finish. "Don't finish that!" Inuyasha hissed quietly.

Myouga pried himself up from the surface of the desk and regarded the young hanyou with confusion. "My lord, what ..."

"I'm serious, Myouga, don't say anything about anything I might or might not have to do because of those damned laws right now!"

Shippou, who had been following the conversation with idle amusement piped up. "He hasn't told Kagome about that part yet, Myouga-jiji."

"Inuyasha-sama!" Myouga looked scandalized, and drew in a breath to start roundly berating his young lord, when a clawed finger hovering menacingly above his head stopped him.

"Just drop it, Myouga. It's been one thing after another for the last while, and I'll tell her when I'm more sure she can handle the news." Inuyasha dropped his chin into his palm and sighed. "What does the great Lord of the West want?"

Myouga frowned at Inuyasha's bored tone. "You should not speak so disrespectfully of your father, Inuyasha-sama."

"Dad's not here," Inuyasha pointed out, "and he'd get over it if he were. What does he want, Myouga?"

Myouga drew himself up to his full, minuscule height. "The Lord of the West wishes to meet your bri… um … Kagome-sama. He's asked that you either come home and introduce her or expect a visit."

"And explain myself," Inuyasha sighed, rubbing at his forehead as he read between the lines of his father's request. "I'm sure explaining myself is in there somewhere."

"He will need _something_ to tell the Emperor's court," Myouga agreed with a careful nod, "seeing as you did not give anyone warning that you were planning on changing a human girl. We weren't even aware you knew any."

"He knows her well enough she got to sleep in Inuyasha's room last night," Shippou volunteered mostly under his breath.

"Shippou!" Inuyasha groaned, while glaring at the snickering kit until Myouga cleared his throat to catch their attention. Inuyasha blinked and looked down at the flea demon, who was regarding him with two sets of crossed arms, and a scowl. "What!? _I _slept in the guestroom!"

Shippou muffled his laughter behind his paws and Myouga lightened visibly and uncrossed his arms. Then Shippou's words registered, and Myouga's eyes widened in concern. "My lord, were your sleeping arrangements, or Lady Kagome's entrance into your life, 'unplanned'?"

Inuyasha rubbed gingerly at the bridge of his nose. "I'm an abomination of nature, and the universe at large hates me, old man. What do you think?" Inuyasha snarled, his claws leaving shallow grooves in the surface of his desk. "Look, I know the laws, Myouga. The damn things have haunted me my entire life. I just have to hope that Kagome would have said 'yes' if she hadn't been mostly unconscious from blood loss and turning into some sort of soul-raped _ghoul_!" Inuyasha brought his growling and his breathing under control before looking at Myouga strangely. "How do you know her name is Kagome anyway?"

Myouga fidgeted for an instant before hopping out of Inuyasha's reach. "Well... apart from my own observations, the girl's godmother spoke with your father this morning. She mentioned the lady's name and suggested asking you for the rest of the situation before Kagome is introduced to the youkai council." Myouga pushed himself back onto his stubby legs and hopped to the very edge of Inuyasha's desk. "I will relay your answer to your father, Inuyasha-sama. He expects you both to arrive appropriately dressed."

Inuyasha glared after his father's retainer and pulled himself back into his chair. "Damn. I hope Miroku remembered to pack Kagome something formal."

&

Kagome halted on the threshold her room as she felt an odd tingle wash over her. She puzzled at the feeling while moving through the room to see the almost sparse-looking area waiting for her.

Clearly a guest room, it contained little furniture. Thin wood panels patterned in a motif of herons stood in front of the tall windows, blocking the late morning sunlight to a comfortable glow. A wardrobe for clothes, and a latched cabinet with a small table below it shared one wall. 

She found a futon and covers in a storage chest, and a clutter of bags and suitcases Kagome vaguely recognized as coming from the uncharted depths of her home closet.

Inuyasha and her brother had been thorough, she thought with some amusement, not sure whether to worry at the sheer number of things they had gathered for her or not. The teetering pile of luggage had been squirreled into one corner of the room and she idly wondered how long Inuyasha expected her to stay. She would be here long enough to get the hang of being a vampire, she understood, but how long did that take?

Kagome added the question to a mental list she was forming to ask Inuyasha later as she began searching for clean clothes. After checking the first three bags, she refined her search to finding clean clothes that did not look like she was heading for Hokkaido in the dead of winter.

She sat back on her heels, chewing lightly at her lower lip, and wondering why the boys had packed every sweater and pair of trousers she owned, all her socks, what looked like the entire contents of her bathroom, and completely forgot to bring her any underwear, skirts, or shorts. They'd even managed to find the oversized flannel pajamas her aunt had given her for a birthday several years before, but not the boxer shorts (stolen from Miroku) and tank tops she normally slept in.

Kagome fished a pair of jeans and one of her lighter sweaters from the collection and dressed, laying the borrowed yukata she had been wearing across the chair of the room's writing desk. After a quick exploration she found her toothbrush in one bag, and the soaps, salts, towels, and other toiletries she might need to transfer to the bathroom down the hall eventually.

She grabbed up her toothbrush and a half-squeezed tube of toothpaste in her fist, intending to head for the bathroom she had seen at the end of the hall and remove the fuzzy feeling from her teeth. Leaning over her bag, Kagome noticed a three-legged stool tucked beneath the table under the small latched cabinet. Curious, she walked over, set the toothbrush on the surface of the table, and leaned over to pull the cushioned seat out. Pale silk, embroidered with the image of a small bird perching on an arc of bamboo picked out in darker thread, covered the seat.

The carving of the cabinet above the table looked foreign and old. Her fingers pulled carefully at the raised hollow in the center, opening one wing of the cabinet. Light glimmered inside, throwing back a reflection of the door and walls behind her. Small shelves, obviously meant for cosmetics, perfumes, or other small objects, lined the interior of the door. Kagome hesitated over pulling the other door covering the mirror open.

She had no idea if any of the legends she had heard about vampires were true, but she knew vampires weren't supposed to have reflections. She found it slightly unusual that Inuyasha would have a mirror, even if it was covered, in his spare room – the only reflective surfaces his room contained were the weapons on the walls. There was a small mirror in the bathroom, but she had not seen anything through the fog covering it after showering that morning for a quick 

shower. Did she want to look into a mirror now, and only see an empty room reflected there? It would make everything seem too real: that she had really died and become a reanimated shell haunting the world of the living.

Her tongue ran thoughtfully over the sharp length of her elongated canines and she pulled her hand away from the unopened side of the mirror. Maybe she was better off knowing right now. She already felt a bit stretched too thin by everything else, like the mental closet she had shut most of the craziness in was starting to strain at the latch and would spring open and bury her if she tried stuffing anything else into it.

She decided to leave well enough alone this time, and leaned down to scoop her things back up from the table. Unfortunately, she didn't close the mirror, and the other wing swung open as soon as she left it unsupported. Kagome straightened quickly to avoid being hit, and found herself staring into her own reflection.

She blinked and leaned closer to the glass. She had a reflection, assuming the blue-eyed girl in the mirror _was_ her. Kagome looked over her shoulder to be sure someone else wasn't standing in the room behind her, but the room remained empty. Her eyes _were_ blue: a deep shade of grey-blue -- as startling in their own way as Inuyasha's gold eyes -- _not_ the normal dark brown she had seen in the mirror her entire life.

A knock at her bedroom door, followed by Inuyasha's concerned, "Oi, you okay in there?" chipped at the befuddled shock coiling around her mind. Kagome turned towards his voice, reaching behind her to shut the mirror door – securely this time – before the door opened, and Inuyasha stuck his head around it, looking confused at her silence.

Seeing her safe, if looking a bit shell-shocked, Inuyasha shifted his attention to the covered mirror behind her and stepped into the room. "Oh. No reflection, huh? Um … I can probably explain that."

Kagome blinked. "I'm not supposed to have a reflection?"

"What, you haven't checked yet?" Inuyasha asked, walking over so he was standing next to her and pointing at the covered mirror behind her. Kagome answered by turning back to the mirror and pulling the doors open again. Both of their reflections looked back, reflecting expressions of puzzlement from Inuyasha and curious resignation from Kagome.

"Huh, that's odd..."

"What? What's odd?" Kagome demanded, turning her eyes up so they met his in the mirror.

Inuyasha held his hands up defensively. "You have a reflection, that's what's odd. It must be a side-effect because I'm the one that changed you; normal vampires don't."

"But you obviously do," she pointed at his reflection where it stood behind her.

"I've always had a reflection," he told her with a shrug. "I just thought I was the only one."

Kagome leaned forward, letting her pale eyes catch some of the light and reflect sparks of blue and silver fire through their shadows. They were really quite pretty, in a weird twilight-zone sort of way. "Any idea why? Or is it just this mirror?"

Inuyasha snorted. "Because we're different? I don't know, exactly. There's a lot of ideas why vampires don't have reflections. Maybe they don't have souls and we do. I don't know. Doubt the vampires know either. But _that's_ only a mirror. There's nothing magical about a piece of glass over silver."

She smiled at him briefly, and then silence descended as Kagome ducked away from Inuyasha and wandered back to her luggage to hunt down a hair tie. Inuyasha fidgeted uncomfortably for a few moments while she thoughtfully pulled things out of her bags and separated them into piles to be put away.

"Um ... Kagome, do you have a formal kimono? Or did you leave all of that stuff with your mom? I didn't see it at your apartment, but your brother might have..."

Kagome looked up curiously from the shirt she was holding. "I haven't seen it here, so it would still be at my apartment. Why?"

Inuyasha scratched at his neck. "You're going to need it. My family wants to meet you."

"Inuyasha," Kagome's voice darkened, and her eyes narrowed a bit. "You promised to explain everything tonight. You're not using this to back out on that, are you?"

"I know! I will! We'll have enough time just ... let's go get whatever else you need from your place before nightfall and I'll answer any questions you've got."

Kagome nodded her agreement and snagged her purse off the top of a stack. "Let's go, then."

* * *

**Kat's Notes:** Well, this is one of those "the plot coagulates" chapters, and thus there isn't very much for me to say. And I'm tired, so this is kind of a thrown together author's note (that may well vanish into cyberspace when I get my brain working again).

Since this, and _The Moriarty Gambit_ are my main stories at the moment, I'm switching off updates. _Gambit_ 10 is next, then I'll be back with _Ties_ 9. I hope to see you then!


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